


Team Ten Tale

by FrostedGear



Category: Naruto
Genre: Also Shisui's a moron, BAMF InoShikaCho, Danzo's still a dick, Gen, I'll tag other characters as they appear/gain significance, Shikamaru has feels, but a sweet moron, itachi-sensei fic, non-massacre, not all Uchiha are dicks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 07:21:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 53,215
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21819619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FrostedGear/pseuds/FrostedGear
Summary: At age thirteen, Itachi was tasked with killing his family. But what if that was avoided? Seemingly alone in the world and entrapped in a tangle of lies and mystery, Itachi sets off down a different path as the Jonin commander of Team 10. Cross-posted from FF.net
Comments: 9
Kudos: 48





	1. Prologue: Formation

**Author's Note:**

> So this is my take on the Itachi-as-a-jonin-teacher sect of fanfics. The story is up to chapter 7 on my fanfic account, but I'll be posting weekly here so it'll catch up quick!
> 
> And then you'll all be sad because I take at least two weeks doing new chapters ^_^;
> 
> Anyway, I hope you enjoy! (As of yet there are no pairings, if any start up, I'll tag them)

“There has to be another way.”

“No, Itachi, there isn’t.”

Itachi looked at his cousin pleadingly. They were sat on the edge of a cliff overlooking the Naka River. Only one of Shisui’s eyes looked back, the other empty socket bleeding sluggishly. “We at least need to warn Father about what Danzo did.”

“It’ll only make him more eager to continue with the coup. Maybe bring it forward. Whatever chance we had before is over.” Shisui looked down at his lap, or perhaps down at the raging waters below, Itachi couldn’t tell for sure. “Still. I suppose I should thank you. Danzo’s blade was laced in poison, if you had got there any later, I’d probably be dead.”

“You don’t sound thankful.”

Shisui shrugged in response. It seemed they were both straining to find hope in this situation. “Technically they don’t need us for the coup, they could do it without.”

“I don’t know what you’re getting at, but I think you should be quiet, Shisui,” Itachi said firmly. After a moment he stood. “I’m going to talk to Father. One last time, and get everything out in the open. It’s the only way to find any last option where no one has to die for this.”

“What? Tell Fugaku we sold his plans out to the Hokage? That we keep getting told we have about three days before the orders to murder everyone goes live? That the solution I had was to use Kotoamatsukami on him? And that Danzo thought it was a stupid idea and plucked my stupid eye out of my stupid head less than an hour ago?” Shisui spat. “Itachi, it’s insane.”

“Shisui,” Itachi returned, the hint of begging in his voice causing Shisui’s expression to soften. “I can’t do this. I don’t want to kill my family, I can’t stand by and allow other people to do it, or let the coup happen. So where does that leave us?”

“At a complete impasse. The Hokage has tried to fix this, we’ve tried and all Danzo and Fugaku can think of is in finalities. Going over this again and again is the very definition of madness, Itachi. Seriously. Stop,” he added to Itachi’s retreating back.

“No. One last try. One last attempt to fix this. I have to try one last time. For Sasuke’s sake.” Behind him, Shisui let out a heavy sigh and stood too.

“Alright. Good luck. Do you want me to come with you?”

“Not unless you want to. You could distract Sasuke for me? I don’t want him to overhear any of this.”

Shisui considered it. “I’ll come. Your mother is pretty skilled in keeping him away. Sasuke doesn’t need me and my negative mood weighing him down. Besides, I have a blind side now. It’ll be really obvious if Sasuke sneaks up on the wrong side of me.”

“I thought you were a ninja,” Itachi teased as they walked. “You shouldn’t be getting snuck up on by seven year olds.”

Shisui smirked, “I always let him stick me with one of those stuffed shuriken. Don’t tell me you don’t.”

“Nope. I get the job of showing him how to throw them at you.”

The two laughed and though the humour was forced, it did ease some of the tension weighing on both young men as they made their way to Itachi’s house, Shisui covering the damage to his face with a quick henge.

Sliding the door to his home open, Itachi took his shoes off and barely responded as Sasuke poked his head out of the living room. “Big brother!”

“Sorry, Sasuke, I’ve got to talk to Father. We can play later, okay?” he said, poking Sasuke in the forehead.

“What? Ah, come on.” Sasuke sighed, “Well, can we play, Shisui?”

“No, sorry. I’ve got to go talk to your dad too,” Shisui apologised, crouching as he pushed off his own shoes and shot a big smile at Sasuke. “After, ‘kay?”

Sasuke gave a sigh so big he visibly stumbled. “Fiiiiiine.”

“Do you know where Father is?” Itachi asked.

“Yeah, in their bedroom. Reading or doing work. I’m not sure.”

“Alright, tell Mother we might be late for dinner.”

“’Kay,” Sasuke chirruped and disappeared back the way he came.

The house was rather big for only four of them, and the fact their parents used a futon meant that Itachi and Sasuke could have bedrooms upstairs while their parents room doubled as an office for Fugaku when he wasn’t at the Police Department. Knocking once on the frame, Itachi slid the paper door open without invitation.

“Itachi. Shisui. Is something the matter?” Fugaku asked, his eyebrows drawn into a frown from where he sat at a low desk, various papers laid across it and another sheet in his hand.

“I need to talk to you about the coup. It can’t wait,” said Itachi, entering and allowing Shisui to shut the door behind them as Fugaku frowned more, reluctantly put his papers down and crossed his arms.

“What do you need to say?”

“Please. I need you to reconsider it.”

“No.”

“You haven’t even heard my reasons!”

“I don’t need to. Your voice is one in hundreds of our clan. I’m sorry, Itachi, but you’re outnumbered. The villagers revile us, and despite our rank, give us no respect, nor do we garner any from fellow clans. We practically live in a ghetto. A revolt is the only way to make them respect us.”

“This isn’t about respect. It’s about pride, and I would rather have no pride than demand respect through bloodshed to satisfy your needs.” He knew he needed to be calm, but Itachi couldn't keep the destain out of his tone.

Fugaku was silent for a moment. “Alright. What would you do? If you were in my position, with daily reports of your clansmen being insulted, assaulted or forced to arrest multiple people when small disagreements escalate? If you hear walking through the street ‘those damn Uchiha, I heard that Uchiah Madara once controlled the Kyuubi with his Sharingan. I wonder if that’s why the beast tried to destroy our village seven years ago?’ ‘I’ll bet they were behind it.’ ‘Can’t trust the Uchiha’? Knowing that after we fought hard for this village ever since it was founded by Uchiha Madara and Senju Harashima , through the Ninja Wars and the Kyuubi attack, where we were in fact stationed to protect the villagers on the back lines, even though every man and their dog knew we should be at the front, trying to use our Sharingan to subdue the beast, but no one trusted us enough to allow it?” Fugaku glared hard at his eldest son and waited for the reply.

“Did you ever ask the Hokage about that?” Itachi wondered, ire fading into curiosity. “About why you were at the back?”

“During the Kyuubi attack? Danzo ordered us to stay back,” Fugaku confirmed. “The Hokage were on the front lines and presumably left their advisors in charge.”

Danzo again. Manipulating behind the scenes, keeping the Uchiha at bay.

“Danzo doesn’t trust us,” noted Shisui, speaking Itachi’s thoughts.

“No, I expect he doesn’t. Though I really don’t know why. Kagami thought of him as a great ally so I understand,” said Fugaku.

“My Grandfather?” Shisui blinked. “I heard they were on a team together during the First Shinobi War.”

“If that’s the case then his actions either make no sense, or make him the most jealous man I’ve ever heard of,” said Itachi, scratching his head in frustration. He was beginning to wonder just how true some of the more ridiculous rumours ANBU had about Danzo were.

“You think he’s jealous of the Sharingan?” Shisui guessed, coming further into the room and sitting down, obviously expecting to be here a while.

Itachi nodded, “It makes sense. Hatake Kakashi seemed to dislike him greatly too, but I didn’t consider the Sharingan could be related to that until now.”

Fugaku frowned. “Why is that relevant?”

Itachi and Shisui shared a look while Fugaku looked between them. Eventually, Shisui nodded and Itachi looked to his Father as Shisui cancelled his jutsu. “Shisui’s right eye was stolen by Danzo an hour ago.”

“What?!” Fugaku yelled eyes wide in a mixture of fear and anger. “And you didn’t think to lead with that?! Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”

“Yes,” said Shisui, unphased, “He has access to Kotoamatsukami. If and when he implants it in someone. Probably himself.”

Gritting his teeth, Fugaku looked between the two. “And why were you hiding that from me? When did he have the opportunity to take it from you in the first place?”

“Because we weren’t sure what to do. It was taken after Shisui got permission from Lord Hokage to try using Kotoamatsukami on you to halt the coup.”

Fugaku looked at his son with his jaw hanging, then to Shisui in disappointment, “Are you two serious? You are.”

“We just didn’t think a coup was the right path,” said Shisui, pointedly not looking at Fugaku.

“What if…” Itachi began slowly. “What if all this, these last seven years of unrest and perhaps any unease before that, were all Danzo playing the long game?”

The other two men looked to Itachi expectantly for him to continue, frowning yet curious. “Go on,” urged Fugaku.

“What if this is all some huge plan for Danzo to get his hands on all the Sharingan he could possibly need, while also damning us in the history books to never return? Either he kills us and some horrible tragedy is blamed as the cause, and Danzo gets tens of dojutsu bearing eyes to use, or the Uchiha are proved to be the distrustful and hateful bunch he claims and he gets to kill us all and take our eyes anyway.”

Silence followed his words and in the wake of any conversation, Itachi slowly slid to the floor too, clasping his hands together and looking at the tatami mat below him as he tried to think if there was even a way out of this situation, if what they assumed was true.

“If that’s his end goal,” Fugaku began, “then to avoid that, we would have to calm the entire situation, or offload the hatred onto a different target. Neither of which sounds plausible.”

“But it is,” Itachi said quietly, eyes widening. “Father. Offload the hate. That’s our option.”

“How?” asked Shisui, “Or rather where?”

“Me. Or us I suppose.”

Fugaku frowned. “What are you thinking?”

“Shisui and I have never been for the coup, we’ve made that much clear, but the wider village doesn’t know that, and the only upper echelons that do are Lord Third and his council. We play the line of the coup being entirely my idea and I convinced Shisui. This meeting here is us asking you for support.”

“I’m not offended, but why am I lumped into the evil plan?” Shisui asked.

“Because you’re down an eye and need a reason not to go on missions for a considerable length of time. Or are you suggesting you can adapt to a severe lack of depth perception in a number of hours or days?”

Shisui shrugged at that. “Alright. And how do we get out of this without being killed? Because I’m pretty sure this is still treason.”

“We make it a rumour,” Itachi said simply. “In this meeting where Shisui and I are advocating how much we hate the village and think Uchiha should lead, you, Father, are completely against it. You throw me out and disown me, and place Shisui under house arrest for the foreseeable future.”

“That’s reckless and particularly ill-thought out for you,” Fugaku noted. “What benefit does you being disowned do to this situation?”

“It appears to isolate me from the rest of the Uchiha, publically.”

“Making you a very pretty target for Danzo from my perspective,” said Shisui.

“Yes, but we know his game. I’m not letting my guard down, and it wouldn’t seem out of character for a scorned child to be distrustful and guarded.”

Fugaku shook his head, “Danzo’s Root operatives will know of the deceit. It makes your plan almost useless.”

“But his plan isn’t to fool anyone other than the villagers,” Shisui said, eyes widening in understanding. “They would see you exposing a horrible deed and uprooting two very strong ninja with evil desires. Keeping them apart, me here and Itachi in the village, and essentially taking away all of Itachi’s titles is a very bold move. It would have an effect on the people, and if we play our networking correctly, should ripple into at least acceptance from the people.”

Itachi nodded. “And, though I’m not sure we’ll be believed, I’d like to tell Lord Hokage about your eye, Shisui. I think if he believes us, it would at least prepare him for possible manipulation and at best, be the final straw to remove Danzo from the council.”

“You think the Hokage is wary of him?” asked Fugaku.

“Yes. Where Lord Hokage is merciful, Danzo is ruthless, where Lord Hokage is thoughtful and peaceful, Danzo is deceitful and warmongering. He hides it behind fierce loyalty, but his zealous is cancer. It’ll destroy Konoha, we need balance between the five countries, not dictatorship.”

“Unfortunately, you’re correct, it’ll be hard to prove anything against Danzo, but,” Fugaku sighed and hung his head. “I’m willing to try. Upset as I am with the treatment we’ve had, it won’t change anything to try your way. But I want you to know, if this doesn’t work out, we move anyway, Itachi. I’m giving you a chance, and I hope for everyone’s sake it succeeds.” He stood and gestured for Itachi to join him. “I want you to know I love you. You’re a very kind child and I’m sorry for what I’m about to do. The pain you’ll endure.”

Itachi bit his lip and nodded, rising to meet his father. “I’m ready. Tell Mother I love you both. And Sasuke.”

Fugaku nodded and took a breath before grabbing his son by the scruff before throwing him bodily at the paper door, Itachi easily falling through the thin material and onto their walkway loudly, his momentum rolling him off it and into the surrounding garden as Fugaku yelled, “How dare you insinuate that! You’re talking treason, Itachi and I won’t stand for it.”

“The village is full of cretins and idiots,” Itachi sneered, “They stifle us when we should be in charge. We live in a ghetto because they are scared!”

“A ghetto? Is that what you call you home? Get out!” Fugaku yelled. “Get your mission bag and get lost, don’t come back for your things. They’ll be burned. Go live the village you hate, and _you_ , Shisui. I thought you knew better. You’re on house arrest and I’ll be reporting you both to Lord Hokage.”

Determined to look as slighted and hateful as possible, Itachi stormed through their home, ignoring Sasuke and slamming any door he came into contact with before grabbing his bag and heading for the door.

His father’s shouting had drawn an audience and Itachi could see Inabi and Yashiro leading Shisui away as Fugaku looked on. As Itachi passed him, Fugaku turned, Sharingan flashing with anger at Itachi. Reaching out, Fugaku grabbed Itachi’s collar and yanked, a kunai between his fingers helping tear the fabric right over the Uchiha fan on his back. “You’re no son of mine,” he said lowly, dangerously, and Itachi could do nothing more than glare back, shirt in tatters, Sharingan burning to hide his growing sorrow.

“Get off you old fool. You’ll regret ignoring me one day soon.”

Fugaku let his hand fall. “Go. I don’t want your spiteful being anywhere near my clan. And if you so much as talk to Sasuke in the street, I’ll haul your ass into the Police Station.”

Itachi sneered. “Like I’d want to see the little shitstain anyway. I was only pretending to like him. Have fun with your useless heir.” He threw his middle finger up at Fugaku for extra measure and stalked off to a plethora of curses being thrown from his now ex-kinsmen, his pursuit and arrest only thwarted by Fugaku refusing to give that order. Itachi was almost glad he didn’t have to be a fly on the wall to the clan meeting that would follow tonight.

* * *

Five years later, no Uchiha had revolted or died, so Itachi counted that as a win. There wasn’t a huge amount of things to be positive about in his current situation, but having successfully stopped the coup was definitely one of them.

Following leaving home, Itachi had spoken to the Hokage and explained the situation, the result seeing Itachi removed from ANBU and re-ranked as a Jonin, and Danzo being removed from the Third Hokage’s council and ordered to disband Root. Rumours circulated much how Itachi had expected and within the week, the general public thought Itachi was as much a monster as the Kyuubi itself, something Itachi found particularly humorous as he lived three floors below the child housing the Bijuu.

The ninja populace was a little more suspicious, but were bound by the Hokage’s decision – that Itachi, whilst obviously expressing ideology that didn’t sit well with anyone, hadn’t actually acted yet, and was to be permitted a second chance. Though all that Itachi really cared about was that his plan had worked; the general public lessened their distrust of the Uchiha and focused all their dislike on Itachi and Shisui when the latter was around. Mostly though, Shisui took to staying within the Uchiha Compound, with Itachi and he meeting in secret to exchange information.

He was occasionally confronted by other ninja about the events surrounding that day, and as he opened the door to his tiny apartment to find Kakashi Hatake reading porn on his bed, Itachi supposed it was finally the Copy Ninja’s turn to try extracting the truth.

“I’m pretty sure there’s locks on windows and doors for a reason,” Itachi commented, shutting the door and moving to store away his groceries.

“Well, I wouldn’t be much of a ninja if I couldn’t get past those,” the silver haired man responded, turning a page in his book, adding casually. “I went through your things.”

“I’d be surprised if you didn’t,” Itachi admitted, finding he wasn’t at all incensed by the idea of Kakashi rooting through his personal items, none of which were overly personal. He burned any important documents that weren’t needed for filing at the Hokage Tower and never wrote or received written missives to his clan. The only photo he owned was of he and Izumi at a tea shop when they were young, and while the couple were the main focus, Itachi had actually only claimed the picture from his room the day he left because Sasuke and Shisui were in the background. He hadn’t dared take a family picture with him in case people like Kakashi broke in and made assumptions. “Did you find what you wanted?”

“No. You are as enigmatic as ever,” Kakashi confirmed. “Though I was hoping you could enlighten me.”

Itachi let the statement hang a moment as he continued to put his shopping away. When Kakashi didn’t speak further, he asked, “Enlighten you about what exactly? I’m not exactly the local gossip girl. You should try Inoichi.”

“Inoichi wouldn’t be able to tell me why Danzo got kicked off the Council the same day you were disowned,” Kakashi said, “How do I know? I already asked. And we both agree it’s very suspicious.”

“It was also five years ago. I don’t remember what I ate for breakfast that day, why would I have any idea what Danzo had done to upset the Hokage enough for that to happen?” argued Itachi. “Danzo has always been a shady man, it could have been absolutely anything and my disownment a complete coincidence.”

“Could be, but several of us agree the chances of that are very slim.”

Pointedly going back to his bags of shopping, unwilling to give the conversation his full attention, Itachi shifted the topic. “’Us’? Well, aren’t you the social butterfly. I thought you hated cliques?”

“Why did you leave your clan that day?” Kakashi pressed, undeterred.

“… Because I felt they deserved better. You saw them under ANBU surveillance. It was like watching lab rats. I wanted more for my family, and thought they did too. I was wrong.”

“So that coup you supposedly were planning is completely off? You’ve given that idea up?”

“An uprising is hard without people sharing your ideology. Even if I did manage it on my own, it’s rather pointless when any and all survivors would hate my guts.”

Closing his book, Kakashi sat up and reached into his pouch for a scroll. “Well, whatever. I guess I’ll try get my answers in another five years. Lord Hokage sent me with this. You’re being appointed a Genin squad.”

“Oh joy,” said Itachi flatly, turning and taking the scroll, pulling it open to scan the contents. “I take it you also have a team. Well. For now anyway. You’ve failed every team if I hear right.”

“Now who’s in a clique?” countered Kakashi. “But yes. I have Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke.”

“My foolish little brother and the Kyuubi kid upstairs. Well. That’s a mess created in hell. I pity you and the other one,” Itachi smirked, lowering his scroll. “I have the latest generation of Ino-Shika-Cho.”

“A Clan brat with a team of Clan brats. Sounds worse than mine,” said Kakashi shrugged opening Itachi’s window with one hand. “At least I only have one Clan brat. Your egos will probably mash so badly you’ll be doing D-Ranks for the next ten years.”

Itachi jerked his chin in the direction of the open window. “I’m not even going to pretend to rise to that. Jump out of my window and leave me alone, Kakashi.”

“Kakashi- _sensei_ ,” the man stressed. “And have a good day yourself. Sensei.” Hoping up on the windowsill, Kakashi offered a wave before leaping away, Itachi happy to see the back of the man and locking the window once more. Setting his kettle to boil, Itachi sat down at a small desk beside his bed and perused the scroll properly, reading through the summary of his team and their scores, sighing when he realised attention span and drive seemed to be a main problem with these three.

He didn’t particularly mind being a Jonin sensei, though Itachi would be surprised if he didn’t hear a complaint about it once the parents of his team found out who was leading them. He was also very glad the Hokage hadn’t selected Itachi for Sasuke’s team as that would be awkward at best and downright disastrous at worst.

The next morning, Itachi arrived at his appointed time to the Konoha academy dressed in Jonin standard attire, paperwork in one gloved hand and the other shoved in his pocket as he walked through the hall, finding the classroom full of graduates easily enough.

“Hello. I’m looking for Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Choji and Nara Shaikamaru, please,” Itachi said politely, not bothering to introduce himself as he scanned the room searching for anyone reacting to their names while also noting Sasuke glaring at him from the second row.

“Oh! Hey, Itachi! You’re a sensei?” called a blonde and Itachi found himself smiling a little as he made eye contact with the kid. “Damn, I wish I was on your team.”

“Hello, Naruto. I’m glad to see you finally passed. How come you haven’t left yet though? I’m here for Team 10. You should have left at least fifteen minutes ago.”

Naruto balked, “What seriously?! How the hell is our sensei so late!”

“Did you seriously not notice people leaving, idiot,” a girl said as she passed Naruto, dragging two boys behind her. “We’re here, Sensei. I’m Ino, the spiky haired dork is Shikamaru and the fatass is Choji.”

“I’m not fat, bitch! I’m chubby. Chubby!” Choji insisted, growling at Ino. As Itachi was about to try break it up, a cold voice cut in.

“What could possibly qualify you to be a teacher? The Hokage must have lost his mind if he thinks you’re safe around other people.”

Itachi could feel all eyes shift between him and the speaker, Sasuke, who was still giving Itachi a hateful look over steepled fingers.

“The hell are you talking about, bastard? Itachi-sensei is totally safe. He let me crash at his once when I couldn’t find my keys,” Naruto defended.

Itachi gave a small shrug. “Perhaps he has. It’s not for me to comment. Though I’m glad it isn’t for you to decide. Say hello to your parents from me. I’m sure it’ll give Fugaku an aneurysm to know I’m still breathing. Let’s go you three,” he added to Ino, Choji and Shikamaru, the latter of whom seemed to have split up the earlier spat. Heading to the classroom door, he heard three sets of feet follow him and waited until they were out into the courtyard before speaking again. “I’d like to get to know you three a little better. Choji, is there anywhere you’d like to eat?”

Choji’s eyes lit up, but just as he was about to speak, Shikamaru cut him off. “Hold up just a sec. What was that back there with Sasuke?”

“Yeah, you two really seem to hate each other,” Ino noted.

Itachi shrugged. “It’s complicated. Let’s find somewhere for lunch and I’ll answer some of your questions and you answer mine. Sound fair?”

“Of course!” Choji dived in before his teammates. “There’s a barbecue place a few blocks away. Dad and I go there a lot so I’m sure I can snag us a booth.”

“Alright, lead the way,” Itachi nodded. Wooping, Choji turned on his heel and hummed happily as they walked.

“Did you really let Naruto crash at yours?” Shikamaru asked, glancing up at Itachi.

“We live in the same apartment complex. It’s not as weird as he made it sound,” Itachi replied. “I made him get a second key cut and keep the spare so it doesn’t happen again.”

Shikamaru grinned. “He snores like a bear, right?”

“Like a dying bear that won’t be quiet.” The boy laughed and Itachi smiled a little. Naruto’s snoring was awful, but he hadn’t minded. It was better to know the boy was safe than sleeping in an alley or something and breaking into the apartment in the morning like the blonde’s original plan. “He’ll have to sort that out if he ever wants to do stealth missions.”

“Naruto doesn’t know the meaning of the word stealth,” Shikamaru argued. They fell into an easy quiet that was only broken by the chatter of the barbecue restaurant, barely half-full as it wasn’t quite time for the lunch rush yet.

Choji spoke happily to the girl at the desk and was soon waving them over to follow him to a booth at to one side of the room with a large grill embedded into the table. Slipping into the booth, Itachi was surprised to find Ino sat next to him. The booth was more than large enough for the three Genin to sit next to each other and him across, which was rather what Itachi had intended, but he decided it wasn’t worth questioning as he caught the spark of infatuation in Ino’s eyes. No, that was a whole kettle of fish he wasn’t going to touch.

He waited for the other three to order, throat tight as Choji reeled off half of the menu and quietly requested a bowl of miso soup, resisting the urge to check how much money was in his wallet.

“You’re not having anything, Sensei?” Choji asked, noticing Itachi’s cheap choice of food.

“I’m meeting a friend later, we usually eat out so I’d rather not have anything much now,” he lied. “While they prepare your meat, why don’t you three tell me about yourselves? Likes, dislikes, hopes or dreams?” he prompted.

“Sure,” smiled Ino, “My favourite food is cherry tomatoes, I hate sashimi and I love shopping. One day I’d like to meet a certain someone, but for now, my dream is to watch out for my friends.”

“I like buying and trying different snacks and going to new restaurants with my family,” Choji said. “I don’t wanna fight people, but my parents made me go to the academy, which was cool, ‘cause I met Shikamaru there and we’re really good friends,” he added, smiling at the spiky haired boy who returned it with a lazy grin of his own.

“And you, Shikamaru?” Itachi prompted.

“I’m like Choji, I don’t want to fight or be a ninja. I want an easy life, where I can just watch the clouds and do nothing. I hate doing anything that’s a drag. Like this,” Shikamaru stated. “Now how about you tell us why Sasuke hates you?”

Leaning back and relaxing against the booth wall, Itachi shrugged. “He doesn’t like me because he’s my little brother. I got disowned from my clan five years ago and haven’t been permitted on their land since.”

“How come you got disowned?” Choji frowned.

Shikamaru’s eyes narrowed. “And how come you’re so calm about it? As his older brother, you’d have been heir right?”

“I was,” Itachi nodded. “And the reason I’m disowned is long and uninteresting. I’ll tell you one day if you impress me.”

“Impress you?” Shikamaru said with a sneer, offended.

“Yes. You see, you haven’t actually graduated yet. There’s another test,” Itachi confirmed.

Ino gave a hurt look, “Another test? But, Iruka-sensei never mentioned…”

“He’s not permitted to. He was grading your on-paper abilities to become ninja, now that you have a Jonin mentor, we assess those skills practically before taking you on. If you aren’t up to scratch, you’ll either be sent back to the academy for another year or be kicked out of the ninja regime altogether,” Itachi explained.

“So what’s this other test?” Shikamaru asked.

“We’re going to play tag.”

Choji tilted his head. “Tag?”

“Yes. In one hour at Training Field Two. Once there I’ll give you twenty seconds to position yourselves any way you like, but you cannot touch me until I call start. During those twenty seconds, I shall remain still. Once time starts you have an hour to tag me. If you do not, you fail.”

“What a drag,” Shikamaru sighed.

“An hour?” Choji said forlornly. Their food arrived as the information Itachi had given them sunk in, and only Choji seemed distracted from the weight of their test by the interruption, the Akimichi immediately cheering up and drooling slightly as he filled their grill with meat.

Choji ate with wild abandon, while Ino and Shikamaru kept shooting Itachi glances as they ate; the former curious and hurt, the latter calculating. It didn’t bother Itachi as he drank his miso and wondered about how well these three would rise to the challenge, he was busy analysing their personalities. Choji was very obviously committed to food, like much of his family, Shikamaru showed some inkling of analytic tendencies, though how much effort the boy was willing to put in seemed limited and Ino seemed the most emotionally disorganised, despite her good test scores. He hoped they proved him wrong and came together when the moment required it.

Once the hour was up, Itachi paid the bill, holding back a wince at the severity of the cost. He was completely cleaned out and hadn’t paid rent yet this month. That would cause problems later. “Do you three know the way to the training grounds?” he asked as they left the barbecue restaurant. At a collective shake of heads, Itachi shrugged and took point, leading the group to their true Genin exam.

The training grounds around Konoha looked mostly the same, vast acres of woodland interspersed with clearings and large stones. Ninja with a regular training zone often left equipment permanently set up as well to ease their own training sessions. Itachi for example had a number of targets placed throughout the grounds of Training Ground Two, though his team wouldn’t be using them at the moment.

“Alright, let’s go through the rules before we start,” Itachi ordered, hands slipping into his trouser pockets. “I’ll stand in the middle of this clearing at the moment the test starts. The training ground boundaries are marked by a wire fence. None of us will leave that boundary during the time limit. You are allowed to use any ninja techniques you desire to tag me, ninjustu, genjutsu, taijutsu, tools, all are available. I am permitted to use ninjutsu and genjutsu, but not tools or taijustu,” here, he moved his hands to unclip his weapons and kunai pouches, carelessly tossing them to one side. “Before I take my position and allow you your prep time, are there any questions?”

Ino raised her hand. “So, to pass, do we all have to catch you or just one of us?”

“All of you,” Itachi confirmed. “Once you catch me, you pass and are excused from participating. Fail and you go back to the academy.”

“And we can stand _wherever_ we want when you start the timer?” Choji checked.

Itachi nodded, “Yes, anywhere you desire so long as you are not touching me before time starts.” He gave it a beat for any more questions before stating. “Very well. Let’s begin.”

Once he was situated in the centre of the training ground, Itachi beckoned the group to take their own starting positions, watching the time count down on an ancient looking pocket watch he had pulled from his flack jacket. It had belonged to his great-grandfather and Itachi had been given it the day he graduated the academy though he rarely took it on missions, finding the ticking loud and obnoxious and not at all stealthy.

Snapping the watch case shut, he looked up to find Shikamaru where he had left him while Choji and Ino had decided to get as close as possible, the former crouched before him with hands looped, ready to snag Itachi and Ino with her fingers not even half an inch above his arm. Itachi stowed the watch away in his jacket pocket once more. “Ready? You have one hour. Begin.”

The instant the last word had left his mouth, Itachi flickered out of sight. At the same time, Choji and Ino tried to grab him, ending with Choji overbalancing and falling to the floor and Ino staring into the empty space dumbfounded.

“But how?” she wondered. “We were so impossibly close, how did you dodge?” She looked around and spotted Itachi several feet away, one hand in his pocket, the other clutching a bag of crisps.

He shrugged. “I’m fast. That was a good effort though.” Turning his head, he looked to Shikamaru expectantly, the boy not having moved at all.

The boy didn’t react and Itachi was forced to ignore him for a moment as the ground rumbled. “Give me back my chips!” roared Choji, his ninjutsu-expanded body hurtling towards Itachi threateningly, “Human Boulder!”

Jumping to safety once again, Itachi weighed up his options. He could throw the crisps, he could open them, and either eat them or dump them on the ground. He needed Choji to take this seriously, which seemed to be working; however, he also wanted Ino and Shikamaru to take part as well. Just what was Shikamaru thinking anyway, the boy hadn’t moved at all. Not even to attempt hand signs for Shadow Paralysis. Which was probably a wise decision, Itachi wasn’t nearly distracted enough for Shikamaru to get a decent attempt at the jutsu in.

He could hear Choji turning around and briefly glanced at him to work out the boy’s trajectory, allowing Ino to throw a barrage of kunai in Itachi’s direction that he was forced to dodge by his own rules of not using ninja tools. Choji then made another easily dodged charge and another two more before he was forced to cancel the jutsu, dazed by the rigorous movement.

“Shikamaru! What are you doing you lazy asshole!” Ino chided. “Don’t you want to pass?”

“Not really, this is such a drag,” Shikamaru noted, though Itachi saw the boy didn’t look totally bored. That analytical look flashed in the boy’s eyes and Itachi knew that despite his words, Shikamaru was assessing his movements.

More kunai flew from Ino’s direction, along with a handful of shuriken. Deciding to get a little more serious, Itachi allowed the tools to hit their mark, only for his body to disperse into a flock of crows.

His students widened their eyes.

“H-how did he-. What _was_ that?” demanded Choji.

Ino balked. “I didn’t even see hand signs.”

Shikamaru didn’t speak either, but he looked shaken. After a second, he slapped his hands into the tiger sign. “Release!” Letting out a burst of chakra, Shikamaru broke through Itachi’s low-level genjutsu and took stock of the situation around him before touching both his teammates and breaking them out too.

“Huh? Shikamaru, were you always that fast?” Ino frowned, not having seen the boy move.

“He used genjutsu, look,” Shikamaru said, throwing a thumb over his shoulder. In reality, Itachi hadn’t moved from the ninja tool attack, using the bag of crisps to block the strikes, utterly wrecking it and the crisps inside.

“M-my chips… I hadn’t even tried that flavour yet…” Choji lamented, falling to his knees.

Ino growled. “Damnit, Choji, not everything is about food!”

“Yes it totally is! Those were the new consummate flavour from Nitora Kitchen, you can only get them in Kusagakure, my Dad got me them specially when he went there on a mission!” the boy yelled in return, swinging a finger to point at Itachi. “And that bastard destroyed them. So we have to take revenge!”

“Fifty-four minutes,” Itachi declared. At the confused look Choji gave him, he elaborated. “You have fifty-four minutes remaining.”

The boy cracked his knuckles in response. “Then I have fifty-four minutes to beat your ass.”

“Choji. Wait.” Shikamaru put a hand on his friend’s shoulder to still him. “Ino, come here,” he jerked his head and the three walked off, presumably to be out of hearing range. Activating his Sharingan, Itachi watched subtly while appearing to examine his watch as the three spoke, reading their lips as best he could from their position.

“He’s doing this deliberately,” Shikamaru told his teammates. “He wants us to act and he’s making a point of showing off to rile us up. But individually, it’s obvious we can’t catch him. We have to work together, and for that, we need a strategy.”

Ino made a comment, but with her back to him, Itachi could be sure what she’d said.

“I was watching him. He’s right, he’s stupidly fast, so we have to figure out a way to slow him down.”

“What are you thinking?” Choji wondered.

Itachi watched Shikamaru explain his plan to his teammates and found himself impressed. It might even work if Itachi hadn’t been spying. Which is exactly why he deactivated his Sharingan and pretended as though he had no idea why the three were throwing shuriken at him with almost reckless abandon. Choji once more activated his human boulder jutsu and bounced towards him, with Itachi dodging and forced to backflip away from more shuriken.

Weapons littered the floor and Itachi pretended to be confused. “Are you done? Those weapon pouches of yours look rather empty.”

“Yeah, but yours aren’t.” Shikamaru grinned and Itachi’s eyes widened as Choji threw a pouch to each of his teammates. Ino used a burst of chakra to flip to a more strategic point, allowing the thee to surround him and once more launch a barrage of weapons at him, leaving him stuck dodging the ones in the air and on the ground. He also noticed them periodically using genjutsu release to dispel any attempt Itachi had of hoodwinking them. Very clever.

Among all this, Shikamaru was waiting for an opening to use his Shadow Paralysis, his range extended thanks to the shuriken casting small shadows on the floor below and Itachi’s field of movement, a thing that was ever-narrowing thanks to the same reason. And these three still had twenty minutes of testing time.

Gritting his teeth, Itachi sprang high into the air to get out of the mess of shuriken and landed by Choji who tried to swing at him with a kunai. Ino charged in to join and Itachi feinted and dodged around the two with fever, seeing Shikamaru making hand-signs out of his peripherals.

He froze suddenly, eyes widening in utter surprise while Choji socked him in the cheek, causing him to recoil.

“Hey! Choji!” chastised Shikamaru from behind him. Where Ino should have been.

“What?” Itachi looked over to where Shikamaru had been. He was still there. But he’d heard Shikamaru behind him…

“Heh. Sorry, Shikamaru. I was sort of already punching him before you caught him.”

“Yeah, yeah. What a drag. Just move so I can get him stuck by that tree and tag him. Ino, we’re done!” Shikamaru called and the other Shikamaru disappeared in a poof of smoke to be replaced by Ino, grinning.

“Transformation. But when?” Itachi asked as he was marched towards the nearest tree, forced to march against it so the real Shikamaru could close the distance and be close enough to touch Itachi, Ino coming over to tag him next before the jutsu was cancelled.

“When Choji went for your weapons. We switched, since we knew you’d be watching out for my Shadow Paralysis, but Ino’s Mind Transfer needs a direct line of travel to the target, so you wouldn’t think to watch her for hand signs,” Shikamaru explained.

“Very clever. I’m glad to say you all pass, and, I’m sorry about your crisps, Choji. I’ll try get you some more to replace them soon,” Itachi said, genuinely remorseful about being so underhanded.

Choji smiled. “It’s okay. I’ve more than one bag at home, I just was wanting to eat that bag later today. You can just pay for lunch again sometime.”

Itachi laughed awkwardly. “Yeah. About that, we might have to do several missions before I can do that again. As your Sensei I can’t really take solo missions for a while, and you guys can only take D or C ranked, which don’t pay enough for large meals out.”

“Aw man,” Choji pouted, Ino chuckling a little.

“At any rate while you’re here, I’d like to set up a training schedule, then you can all go home for the day,” said Itachi, leaning his back against the tree trunk. “Do any of you have extra-curricular activities that would limit which days you can train on?”

The boys shook their heads, but Ino nodded. “I work at my parents’ flower shop part-time Mondays and Thursdays.”

“Okay, I can work around that. Shikamaru, I want you to come here Monday and Thursday, Choji Tuesday and Friday and Ino on Wednesday and Saturday. All three of you come together on Sundays for team training. Two while six p.m. and in a couple of weeks we can look at our first mission.” For now, he wanted to train with them individually and assess their strengths, weaknesses and how to progress, as well as allow them time to rest between and hopefully apply some initiative and self-learn or train with their Clans. Training as a group at the end of the week would allow Itachi to see how much they were taking away from individual sessions and he could always switch up the ratio later as he learned his team’s needs. “Welcome to Team 10.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Quick note: I'll probably be using the dub and Japanese words interchangeably for high-frequency things like henge, hitai-ate, and dobe but try to stick to the English translated versions for jutsu. If that's annoying, let me know.


	2. Chapter 1: Exploration

Training, as it turned out, was exactly what each Genin in Team Ten believed torture was.

"At least you don't have to get up at the crack of dawn, then wait three hours for your sensei to decide to turn up," Naruto whined, head in his hands on the counter. The blonde had persuaded Shikamaru and Choji to join him at Ichiraku's Ramen Stand since Sakura and Sasuke didn't want to hang out with him and Ino had been more interested on getting a shower than any form of food.

"Yeah, but you guys are doing missions right? Itachi-sensei won't even let us look at mission requests," Choji pointed out. "It's been like a month already, this is brutal."

Shikamaru lifted his head from the counter as a bowl of steaming ramen was placed beside him, adding, "I asked Iruka-sensei the other week why we were paired together. He says our three teamwork skills were the highest, and also that since our Dads worked so well together, it was kind of assumed we would."

"Well that's even more of a reason for Itachi-sensei to give us a mission instead of drills!" Choji argued.

"I dunno, the missions we've been on so far are pretty crap," Naruto noted. "We've done the same stupid D-Ranks over and over. Literally with that stupid missing cat."

Choji laughed, "Yeah, I heard about that. Some rich woman who loves her cat. Cat doesn't feel the same. Poor thing."

Naruto mumbled something unintelligible around a mouthful of ramen.

"Try that again with an _empty_ mouth, Naruto," Shikamaru chided, eating at a far more sedate pace.

"I _said_ , maybe Itachi-sensei is keeping you off missions 'cause _his_ teamwork scores aren't high," Naruto repeated with a frown.

"Huh?" Choji's eyebrows drew together and Shikamaru eyed Naruto warily.

"What are you talking about, Naruto?"

Naruto elaborated, "Itachi left the academy at seven years old. So he's probably been working either alone or with much older ninja. So maybe he's trying to get a feel for you guys?"

"Huh. I didn't know that," Choji blinked.

Shikamaru still looked doubtful. "Me neither. Naruto, how'd you know?"

"Me and him hang out sometimes, I asked him about his time in the academy after I failed a bunch of tests last year," Naruto answered easily. "He had no idea about them because he took final year exams like six months into his first year. Pretty impressive huh?"

"You sure? That's… completely unheard of," said Shikamaru.

"Yeah, totally, believe it!"

"I still find it weird you hang out with Sensei," said Choji. "He doesn't really hang out with us outside of training."

"Yeah," nodded Shikamaru, "He seems the type to stick to himself, you know?"

"I guess," Naruto shrugged. "He is pretty weird. Reads a lot and tries to make me eat more vegetables. He taught me how to throw a kunai better though," he noted happily. "Remember that day I hit all the targets in shuriken practise? Hehe, Itachi had me throwing them at a target on the walls of our apartment block for hours all week."

Choji and Shikamaru stared at Naruto blankly for a moment, jaws hanging. Eventually Choji spoke up. "But… you didn't hit the inner ring. Except like maybe once. Itachi-sensei hits dead centre. Every time."

"Yeah, it's a drag. Especially when he makes us run around _his_ training area hitting targets he obviously knows the placements of like the back of his hands." Shikamaru huffed and pushed his half-finished ramen to Naruto who grinned and started on it once his own bowl was empty, a neat stack of them slowly piling up beside him on the counter.

"It sucks even more that he keeps wanting us to do it faster," Choji said then waved to Teuchi for another bowl, his own pile just slightly ahead of Naruto's. "They're in really weird positions so it takes about five minutes."

"And he did that thing where he jumped in the air and span around like a circus performer," Shikamaru said, pointing with his finger.

Choji jabbed his finger back, "Yeah, a crazy, deadly performer who hit all the targets in like one move."

It was Naruto's turn to stare. "Seriously? Wow, Itachi's so cool!"

Choji raised an eyebrow, "Dude, we'll swap."

"Nah, ending up with Sasuke or Sakura would be a total drag," argued Shikamaru. "Does she still kiss the ground Sasuke walks on?" he added to Naruto who deflated.

"Yeah," he said, hanging his head. "She won't even look at me and Sasuke doesn't pay attention to her at all. He's always trying way too hard to look cool and be the best."

Choji snorted. "I think Ino's switched to liking Itachi-sensei. She's super-motivated to train."

"Yeah, it's a total drag, though I can see the connection," hummed Shikamaru, "She and Sakura both like Sasuke and Itachi's his brother. They kinda have the same face."

"That's weird. And… isn't it illegal or something?" Naruto frowned. "Also, I had no idea he was Sasuke's brother, but yeah, now you mention it, the resemblance is there."

"Nah, he's seventeen. He just looks older," Shikamaru shrugged. "But I don't think he cares about girls."

"Still kinda weird wanting to kiss our Sensei," said Choji.

Silence fell on them a moment allowing them to go back to their meals before Naruto startled, snapping his head and shouting "Guys!" causing Choji to choke on his ramen noodles.

"Itachi's got a picture of a girl next to his bed! I bet he's not interested in Ino because he already _has_ a girlfriend!" Naruto declared around Choji's coughing.

"S-seriously? You scared the shit out of me for that?" croaked Choji glaring, "I nearly spilled my ramen."

"I forgot okay?" Naruto pouted. "But it's a cute girl. Brown hair, and she's smiling. Itachi's in the photo too, but he's younger in it. His hair isn't as long."

Shikamaru and Choji shared a look, wondering if it was from before Itachi had been disowned. Either way, maybe sneaking into their sensei's apartment and having a look around could give them some idea about Itachi as a person, or at least push him to give them a mission. From the sounds of it, they were legitimately the only team not performing them.

"I kinda want to see it," Choji admitted.

"Yeah, but getting caught would be a drag," Shikamaru pointed out.

"Well, we could go have a look on Wednesday when he's training with Ino?" Choji suggested.

"I'll help!" Naruto offered, "I can take you up to his apartment!"

That seemed to settle it. Paying for their food and each heading home, the three agreed to meet at 2:45, at the entrance to Naruto's apartment complex. Unlike Naruto's own sensei, Itachi was punctual though Shikamaru didn't want to risk him seeing them heading towards his home as he went to meet Ino, who they all agreed was better off kept in the dark about their plan.

"Are you sure you wanna use the front door?" Naruto asked as he lead the other two ninja up the stairs of his complex, hands clasped lazily behind his head.

"Yeah, if he's expecting a break in, it'll be from a ninja at the window. Doors are for civilians and people with a right to be there," explained Shikamaru. "It's totally the safer option."

"Think we'll get lucky and he's got a key under the welcome mat?" Choji asked around munching on a bag of crisps.

"I don't think so," said Naruto, "He doesn't have a welcome mat. Here we are."

He stopped at a door and turned to the other two with a curious frown. "So how're you getting in?"

"Are you sure it's his?" Shikamaru frowned. All the doors looked the same.

"Yeah. Some ass carved a dick on his door a few years back, see?" Naruto explained, pointing to the vulgar graffiti. "I asked about it, apparently after replacing the wood a few times and another dick ending up there, he gave up. Kinda shitty though, what he do to them? Probably nothing."

Shikamaru crouched before the keyhole and put a hand into the tie of his ponytail, withdrawing a thin bobby pin. It took longer than the boy was comfortable with to work the lock, but soon they all heard the satisfying clack of the lock sliding free. Naruto smacked him on the back.

"Awesome, Shikamaru."

"Yeah, well done," Choji praised as Shikamaru grabbed and twisted the door handle.

The door swung open to reveal a small one-roomed apartment that at first glance was incredibly bare. A bed sat against the wall covered in light grey sheets. It was impeccably made and Shikamaru briefly wondered if Itachi even used it or just fell asleep standing up like some creepy statue. Beside the bed was a nightstand upon which sat the photo Naruto had told them about and a leather-bound book that appeared to be on legendary weapons. Probably complete nonsense so why such a serious guy like Itachi had it was beyond Shikamaru.

A chair and desk was next to that, but was currently empty except for a lamp and that morning's newspaper, the puzzles' page open and half completed. Turning to the right hand wall was a standing fridge-freezer and a small kitchen area, which again was spotless, not even anything in the sink or draining board. A door in the corner lead to a tiny, unfurnished bathroom where even his shower gel and shampoo were uninteresting neutral scents. The only other things of note were a dresser on the back wall by the door and a calendar hanging from a pin in the door itself with the previous days crossed off and no appointments that Shikamaru could see. He took a step over to the calendar and flipped through it, trying to see if there was any dates Itachi felt were significant. "It's blank," he told his companions, placing the calendar back on the door.

"At least there's food in his fridge. Maybe we'll learn something there?" suggested Choji.

"Hey, get out of the fridge, if you eat something, Itachi'll know. Believe it!" growled Naruto. Choji rolled his eyes and slammed the fridge shut and drew a pack of crisps from his bag, opening them and starting to munch on them instead.

"What a drag. Sensei's so boring. There is literally nothing here," Shikamaru frowned, opening Itachi's drawers. "He doesn't even wear interesting underpants."

"Boxers or briefs?" Naruto asked.

"Why do you care?"

"I don't, but you were looking."

"That makes no sense, Naruto."

Naruto glared and was about to say something else, only to be cut off by Choji. "Hey guys. I found something."

"Huh?"

Coming over, Shikamaru and Naruto joined Choji by Itachi's bed where Choji seemed to have found a hidden panel and pulled it aside to reveal a neatly folded pile of clothes, atop which lay a mask.

"What's this? A mask?" Naruto asked, reaching into the compartment without fear and taking the mask out, turning it in the light. Shikamaru felt the blood drain out of him as Naruto turned the porcelain mask this way and that. It was of some kind of animal with a painted red triangle on the top. "I think it's a weasel?"

Shikamaru stood up and took several steps back. "It doesn't matter what it is, put it back right now, Naruto. We gotta get out of here."

"Huh? Why?"

"It's an ANBU mask, Naruto," Choji said quietly.

"Wait what?" Naruto looked down at the mask. "So then… Itachi's in ANBU?"

"Probably. Maybe," Choji shrugged, also looking quite pale. "Shikamaru's right though. There's no way Itachi-sensei will be happy we found that. The ANBU are like Lord Hokage's personal assassins. We're so screwed."

At 'assassins' Naruto startled and fumbled with the mask, trying to put it back in a hurry, Choji shoving the panel back just as sharply. "Oh fuck!" Like the frightened children they were, they scarpered, retreating out of the door and getting out of there as fast as possible once they had checked Itachi's door was once again locked.

* * *

They didn't talk about what they had found with Ino, unsure how to bring the topic up, nor did Choji or Shikamaru say anything at their solo practise. Fleetingly, they started to convince themselves Itachi had no idea they'd snuck into his home and found his ANBU uniform. Naruto had even made the suggestion it was fake, and while Shikamaru didn't totally believe it, the temptation was there.

Until Sunday, where Shikamaru and Choji were almost certain Itachi was trying to kill them.

They had turned up to team training at the regular time to find Itachi waiting under the same tree as usual, the older boy greeting them with a smile and a half wave.

"Hey, Sensei," Ino greeted tiredly, still sore from training the previous day. She had a couple of bandages on her arms, which wasn't unusual. Solo sessions usually meant sparing sessions, and Itachi often landed shallow cuts or weak blows on them, leaving small bruises.

Shikamaru grunted a greeting and Choji managed one around his morning snack, their excursion earlier in the week mostly forgotten as they now believed they were going to get away with it.

However, as Itachi pushed off from the tree and started to explain today's training, that fell into doubt.

"Good afternoon. I'd like to do things a little differently today. Choji, you'll be using your Human Boulder jutsu to try to catch me, Shikamaru, you'll be using your Shadow Paralysis jutsu on Ino and be negotiating a series of weapons thrown at you both by my Shadow Clone. Ideally, I'd like for Choji to catch me, causing the clone to cancel, but failing that, we'll stop when you both run out of chakra," Itachi explained, forming the hand sign for the Shadow Clone justu. A second Itachi appeared with a puff of smoke and was handed the weapons pouch of the original.

"Ino, Shikamaru, let's go," it ordered, walking away to the far end of the Training Ground.

The original turned to his final student. "Whenever you're ready, Choji,"

"Uh… o-okay," Choji fumbled, storing his crisps away before performing his own jutsu. "Expansion jutsu: Human Boulder!" He rolled towards his sensei who dodged to the side and did his best to keep up with him, as he often did in their team sessions. Usually though, Shikamaru was encouraged to catch Itachi as well with his Shadow Paralysis where Ino would use her Mind Transfer or move in to knock him out, something that rarely succeeded before they were out of chakra, and even then, Ino sometimes missed her mark and was 'killed' by a Shadow Clone. Personally, Choji just reckoned Itachi didn't want brain damage from being forcefully knocked out every week.

He was getting faster at turning and striking again, something his father Chozu had noticed, but it still didn't seem to be helping. No matter what Choji did, he couldn't catch Itachi. It was annoying, especially because Itachi would ask the same tasks of them over and over, regardless of whether they succeeded or failed. And as Naruto noted, they were the only graduating team this year _not_ doing missions.

Turning to strike again, Choji realised he'd gone wide only by Ino shrieking, "Not over here! Shikamaru, move before he kills me!"

"Sorry, Ino!" Choji apologized.

"Kinda hard to move with all these kunai!" Shikamaru griped, still busy deflecting the projectiles while trying to side step around Choji's trajectory.

They weren't doing particularly well either, Shikamaru sweating as he struggled to maintain the jutsu and focus on keeping Ino and himself out of danger. He could probably manage against a normal person, Shikamaru figured, but Itachi was particularly gifted at shuriken jutsu and often projectiles Shikamaru would deflect found their way back to him for round two.

"This is such a drag!" he growled, flicking another throwing star away with a kunai.

"You're telling me! I'm a fucking ragdoll!" Ino yelled back. "Shuriken to my left!"

"Damn it!" Turning his head, he spotted the danger and raised Ino's hand, kunai held tight, to block the attack. "How has he not run out yet?"

"I have two packs," the Shadow Clone shrugged. "Also, some are on wires, though I assume you've not noticed?"

"They are? Ahhhh!" Ino shrieked and Shikamaru barely rolled them out of the way in time. "Sensei, seriously, stop trying to kill us! I'm too young and pretty to die!"

Shikamaru slumped. "Maybe try saying that _without_ all the grass stains, cuts and bruises?"

"Shikamaru," Ino warned, her voice radiating danger. "When you run out of chakra, I'm going to throttle you."

Swallowing thickly, Shikamaru considered maybe it was safer to not talk until training was over.

* * *

They managed a whole hour before Choji was dizzy, nauseous and the rumbling of his stomach was starting to sound dangerous, and Shikamaru was a panting puddle of sweat, falling to the ground as his shadow returned to him. Ino didn't look much better, with so many near misses and no control over her body; she'd spent most of the time terrified out of her wits.

"Well done. I'm very impressed with you all today," Itachi praised, barely looking out of breath. The three gave him weary looks and watched as he closed the difference to loom over them, looking each in the eye. "Now tell me. Did you find what you were looking for in my home?"

"What?" Ino said, her face contorting in confusion. She saw both Choji and Shikamaru pale though. "Oh for pity's sake. _What did you two do_?!"

"H-how'd you know it was us?" Shikamaru asked.

"Besides the obvious admission just now? Crumbs. My floor was coated in crisp crumbs," Itachi said, looking from Shikamaru to Choji. "What were you looking for anyway?" he added with a tone that was somewhere between suspicious and curious.

"Not your ANBU mask, totally not that!"

"Choji!" Shikamaru berated. The larger boy hunched his shoulders.

Ino frowned. "ANBU mask? Why would Itachi-sensei have one of those?"

Itachi shrugged, not willing to answer one way or the other.

"We wanted to figure out why you don't let us go on missions. All the other graduating teams do," Shikamaru said. "But not us, we train and that's it. It's boring and we're getting sick of it."

"You mean you'd rather sit around and chase escaping cats or ward bears out of farmland?" Itachi asked, sounding genuinely curious. "D-Ranked missions are essentially anything a civilian could do but doesn't want to do because it would take too long and a ninja could do it in at least half the time. I would have thought you'd prefer training, that way you get to do what you want for most of the week."

"I mean, yeah, that's nice, but since I graduated, my parents have shrunk my allowance. They were gonna cancel it after my first mission," Choji admitted. Ino and Shikamaru made noises toward the same.

"When _are_ we going to do a mission if we can't do D-Ranks?" Ino asked.

"I never said you couldn't. I just didn't realise you were so eager to," Itachi admitted, hand on his hip. "I was going to take you on a C-Rank in a couple of weeks. Until you broke into my home. Now I don't know that I trust you enough to take you out of the village on a mission."

Shikamaru and Choji's faces darkened in shame and Ino looked livid. "Seriously, why did you think that was a good idea?" she demanded.

"We're sorry, Sensei," Choji mumbled. Shikamaru looked intently at the floor, lips pursed.

Sighing, Itachi scratched the side of his head. "Look. I'm sorry that I didn't notice how upset just training was making you, but I'm not committing to potentially putting us all in danger because we aren't on the same page. We'll do some D-Ranks next week. If, over the next few weeks, you can show me you're willing to trust my instructions even if you don't know the end goal, _and_ show great teamwork amongst yourselves, we can still get a C-Ranked in before your peers."

Ino stared up at Itachi for a long moment before breaking into a smile and jumping to her feet, "Seriously? Awesome!" She punched the air. "I'll rock these missions and become an awesome kunoichi all the hot boys want to date!" All three boys stared at her with varying degrees of concern.

"Yes… You're all dismissed." It was earlier than usual, but no one was complaining. Choji and Shikamaru took off towards their homes faster than usual, while Ino soon found her sensei following her into the village proper.

"Sensei?" she asked, turning her head to look at him.

"I apologise. I wasn't sure if you were involved in their plan, but had assumed so," said Itachi, though he didn't suddenly leave after as Ino expected him to.

"Okay, but, did you have to follow me home to say that?"

Itachi's eyebrows drew closer together. "No?" He pointed to her family's flower shop. "I wanted some flowers."

"Oh." Ino blushed in embarrassment. Itachi either didn't care or didn't notice, sidestepping around her and heading inside. Darting in after her sensei, Ino found him beside some alstroemeria. "Uhm, Itachi-sensei, do you want some help?" she asked. "I'm very knowledgeable about flowers."

"I expect so," Itachi noted dully, looking over after a moment. "Very well. I'm looking for something not too expensive and only a few flowers per stem."

"What's the occasion? If you don't mind me asking," Ino added hurriedly.

Itachi was quiet for a moment, and Ino wondered if perhaps she had offended him. "They're for someone I haven't seen in a long time. A small well wish."

Ino's eyes widened for a moment as she processed that Itachi had answered her question and then what the actual content of that answer had been. "Uhm, okay. Well. There's this stock," she said, leading him over to a small lilac flower. "It symbolises bonds and a happy life." She tried to get a read on his opinion of that before deciding it might just be better to show him a selection of options and hope Itachi would find something he like within that.

"There's also statice, which stands for remembrance, sympathy and success. It also comes in a few different colours, so if that person has a colour they're fond of, that could be a good one. Next are these green roses, they're a little unusual, but can mean best wishes for a new life and good health. Peony's mean good health as well. And gladiolus also symbolise remembrance as well as faithfulness and honour."

Itachi nodded each time she lead him around to a flower and spoke about it. "Out of the gladiolus and statice, which would last longer?"

"Cut? Well, the gladiolus is more robust," Ino admitted. "But we cut all flowers fresh from gardens and bring them here daily. So it doesn't really matter. You'd probably get a week out of both."

"Could they work together as a bunch?"

"Uhm, yeah, they both can come in different colours, rather than shades, so I'd be inclined to have the gladiolus as the central flowers and the statice frame them," Ino noted. "Do you want me to show you?" He nodded and they spent several minutes discussing colour combinations as Ino took a few flowers and grouped them together for Itachi to see and assess.

Eventually, he had a bouquet he was satisfied with and Ino priced it up as her father was cutting flowers on the other side of the shop.

Once Itachi had paid for his flowers and left, Inoichi came over. "What did he want flowers for?"

"I dunno, Dad. Someone he hasn't seen in a while. Maybe an old friend or girlfriend?" she guessed.

"He's not dating anyone so far as I know," Inoichi revealed. As captain of the Intelligence Division and owner of the flower shop, Inoichi was a pretty solid stop on the gossip train, knowing much of the goings on of Konoha's population but generally not being interested enough to use that information for ill-gain.

Ino shrugged. "What _do_ you know about my sensei?" she asked. "You and Mum didn't seem too pleased when I told you who he was."

"He's a brilliant ninja, just weird is all. I'd been under the impression you were going to have someone else as your sensei," her father admitted.

"Who?"

"Well, my team was under a member of the Sarutobi clan. We figured your team would have a similar layout," Inoichi said with a shrug. "Uchiha usually go into the Police Force when they hit Chūnin, I don't think any of them became Jonin sensei."

"Maybe because Itachi-sensei is disowned?" Ino suggested.

Inoichi startled slightly, "He told you about that?"

"Yeah, but not the reason or anything. It came up because Sasuke seems to hate his guts."

"Ah, well. It isn't the sort of thing that comes up in polite conversation."

"Still," Ino frowned. "He must have done something really bad to have that reaction from his own brother. I didn't even know Sasuke _had_ a brother."

"It's not my story to tell, Ino," her father said firmly. "But I know there's never really been people Itachi has been close to. Nor is he particularly sociable."

"Yeah, I'm beginning to see that," Ino sighed. "Dad?"

"Hmm?"

"Is it true Itachi-sensei was in ANBU?"

Inoichi frowned. "How did you come across that idea?"

"Choji and Shikamaru said they found an ANBU mask in his apartment."

Her father was quiet a moment, considering the information and Ino wondered if he was going to reprimand her teammates. "He was," Inoichi confirmed. "He joined at age eleven. Though I would imagine your sensei would appreciate you not telling anyone. ANBU is a very secretive organisation and if that mask wasn't hidden away properly or destroyed, I think he was either using it as a deterrent or he's still active within ANBU ranks."

"Would you know either way?"

Inoichi shrugged, "It depends on his mission, but it's been a few years since we've crossed paths, so I can't be sure."

She nodded. "Well, he seems in an okay mood about us possibly knowing anyway. We're going on a mission next week."

"Aw, so does that mean I'll lose my favourite helper?" Inoichi asked in mock hurt.

Ino laughed. "Nah, Dad. They're just D-Ranks for now. Apparently he wanted us to go on a C-Rank but he's changed his mind. So I still need my shifts to make up for shopping sprees."

Inoichi shared a chuckle and gestured with his thumb to the aprons hanging up. "Well, since you're home early why don't you stay a couple of hours and I'll give you some spending money before the market closes?"

"Sweet!"


	3. Chapter 2: Assessment

“Three break-ins in almost as many months. I’m beginning to think I might as well leave the door open,” Itachi stated blandly, shutting his apartment door and pulling some dango out of the fridge.

“Well, you’re not exactly trying very hard to keep people out,” his uninvited guest noted from where he was examining the flowers Itachi had bought a few hours earlier. “Who else broke in?”

“Hatake Kakashi the other month and my students earlier this week. Do you want some tea, Shisui?” Itachi asked, moving to put the kettle on.

“Sure. And seriously? Your Genin kids broke in?” his cousin chuckled. “These are nice,” he added, pulling some of the flowers free.

“The flowers?” Itachi turned to glance at his cousin and sighed. “They were for Mother. It’s her birthday soon.”

“Oh.” They both glanced at the flowers in Shisui’s lap. The man was tactile and generally had permission to help himself to Itachi’s possessions, though Itachi felt a flicker of annoyance at the twisted collection of flowers in Shisui’s hands. “Uhm… do you think she’d appreciate a flower crown?” Shisui tried. “If not, I’m happy to replace them. I should have known.”

Itachi waved a hand. “It’s fine. I wouldn’t have been able to get them to her anyway. I probably shouldn’t have bought them.”

“She’s forty this year though right? Is that why you got them?” Itachi nodded. “I can let her know, you know, that you’re thinking of her?”

“Thanks.” He turned away a moment to pour their drinks, then returned to Shisui, holding his drink out to Shisui’s left. “You might as well finish what you started. It doesn’t look that bad.”

“I can’t tell if you’re being sarcastic or not,” Shisui replied ruefully, taking the tea and putting it on Itachi’s bedside table as his cousin joined him on the bed, the box of dango between them. Ever since Danzo had stolen his eye, Shisui had hidden the wound under an illusion, and though he had spent the last five years coping with the injury, Itachi was always careful to keep movement away from Shisui’s blind side. Not because he thought his cousin couldn’t cope, but to give him a break. No one was ever around when the two met anyway, the meetings secret to keep up the appearance of Itachi being hated by his clan, rather than in semi-regular contact with it.

Itachi shrugged. “How are they? Mother and Father?”

“Good. Your mother is thinking of going back to active ninja work now that Sasuke’s graduated, and your father is generally well. A few members retired from the Police Force, so work’s been piling up, but I get the bulk of the deskwork, so that’s been helping.” He looked down at the sweet treat and glanced at Itachi, who waved his hand at Shisui. “Thanks,” he hummed, taking a stick of dango and chewing on the first ball as he went back to the flowers. “Sasuke’s been offered shifts at the Police Station. Nothing overly strenuous and he’s still a bit iffy with me, so I’m not sure how that’ll go.”

Itachi pursed his lips. He hadn’t asked about Sasuke, but Shisui knew he would want to know anyway, which made Itachi glad he had such a good friend. Even if Sasuke didn’t appreciate either of them anymore.

“Izumi’s also finished her training as a medic ninja.”

Itachi raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”

“Just thought you should know. In case you get your ass kicked, you can go see her at the hospital?” Shisui suggested. “That and I figured since you have that picture of her you ought to keep up with her news.”

“But you know that isn’t the reason I have it, therefore there’s no reason to tell me. I’d find out eventually if I end up in the hospital with a severe injury,” Itachi pointed out confused by the strange comment. He took a stick of dango of his own and leaned back against the wall, wondering if his cousin was more just passing along the achievement because Izumi had asked him to. It would make sense. “So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”

Shisui arched an eyebrow. “You mean I have to have a reason to come here?”

“No, but you obviously do.” He bit off a ball of dango and looked to Shisui expectantly.

Dango stick between his teeth, Shisui shifted to retrieve a small box from his back pouch and offered it to Itachi. “I wanted to give you this before your birthday. I know it’s a couple of weeks away, but Lord Hokage is sending me on a mission in the morning and I didn’t want to deliver it late. Happy early eighteenth.”

Brows drawing together curiously, Itachi reached out and took the box, “Should I open it?” Shisui nodded and Itachi finished his dango, dropping the empty stick back in the box carelessly before opening his gift and pulling out the necklace that lay inside.

Three metal rings were linked by a slim close-knit metal chain and reminded Itachi vaguely of magatama or the three tomoe in a fully awakened Sharingan. He held it up and turned it gently, letting the metal glint in the light. “Not very subtle.”

“You wound me. I thought you’d like it,” said Shisui smiling, “And I’m not asking you to parade it around. You can hide it under your flack jacket. I just thought it’d suit you.”

“What’s it made of?”

“Wolfram. It’s strong and not overly magnetic., so it shouldn’t cause problems on missions,” Shisui answered with a soft smile, reaching for his tea. “Changing your mind?”

“I never said I didn’t like it,” Itachi pointed out staring at the necklace for a moment longer before undoing the clasp and putting it on. “Better?”

“Much. The colour brings out your eyes,” Shisui grinned, teasing.

“Shisui,” Itachi said in warning making his friend laugh.

Shisui waved his hand apologetically, “Alright, but I was right, it looks good.”

Itachi cocked a small smile too and shook his head. “Thank you. I would have been happy enough with a training session though. It’s just not the same on my own.”

“Nah, it’s not,” Shisui nodded. “I miss it too though, so I’ll try sneak away sometime. But I can’t guarantee anything.” Which meant it was probably never going to happen.

All the same, Itachi pretended like it could work. “Training Field Two. You’ve more chance of sneaking into the village than I of sneaking into the Uchiha Training Fields.”

“In case Sasuke spots you? I’m sorry he doesn’t know the truth,” Shisui said sympathetically.

“I’m not. If he knew he’d probably hate the village, even though this whole thing was my idea. This is the better way. I don’t care if he hates me, so long as he’s safe.”

Finishing his drink, Shisui got up. “Well, anyway. I’ll hopefully see you around. And I’ll try explain my mess up to your mother.” He held up the flower crown, which looked more like a wreath.

“Just make sure she understands I had a bouquet and _you_ did that.” Itachi smiled, “Bye, Shisui.” His cousin gave him a wave and flickered away out the window, leaving Itachi alone once again.

#

Stretching his arms above his head and feeling a satisfying crack in his back, Itachi waited for his team at the entrance to the Hokage tower. Since this was their first mission, they were to be offered it by Lord Hokage, as was tradition. It did mean though that he had to wait and observe the people of the village as they went by, unable to sit on the Hokage’s windowsill to be addressed as most ANBU would.

Itachi actually quite liked watching the people of the village go about their daily lives. From high above, where he didn’t have to see the disapproving looks of adults who thought him a danger. Hear them warning their children to be wary of him.

Here on the ground though, he could spot the occasional Uchiha officer in their Police uniform talking and joking with some of the village merchants. It pleased him to see his family redeemed, even at the cost to achieve it. When Itachi had left the clan, Fugaku had urged the rest of their family to take the chance they were given and attempt to reintegrate into the community following the backlash towards Itachi. Some had been more successful than others and anyone who wasn’t willing to put in the effort risked being branded possible traitors to the village and handed over to the Hokage and ANBU.

It was harsh but effective. The only resistance met was Yashiro, an elder member of the clan, and Fugaku’s most trusted advisor. Itachi didn’t know the whole story, but the fallout of a meeting between his father and Yashiro ended up with Yashiro taking retirement and Fukagu showing more humility than Itachi thought his father capable of. He apologised to the Hokage and was actively trying to make this new situation work. All while still finding time to train Sasuke.

Eventually though, he caught sight of his three Genin; Choji and Shikamaru pausing at a merchant, presumably to buy more crisps for Choji, and Ino accompanied by her father, heading straight for him.

“Hello, Ino, Lord Inoichi,” Itachi greeted once the pair stopped.

“Sorry I’m late, Sensei. Dad wanted to walk with me since we have the same destination,” Ino excused, frowning. “Where are Choji and Shikamaru?”

Itachi pointed down the street. “They’ll be along in a minute, I don’t mind the wait.”

Inoichi nodded at Itachi, eyes sharp. “Itachi-sensei.”

“Lord Inoichi?” Itachi asked, hissing in his mind, _out_. He couldn’t feel the Yamanaka in his mind, but it was always better to cover his bases. _This is just a basic mission within the confines of the village. Nothing is going to happen._

 _See that it doesn’t_ , Inoichi’s voice rumbled inside his mind.

“Sorry, Ino, I’m getting late too, enjoy your mission,” Inoichi said aloud, smiling at his daughter before heading into the Hokage Tower, presumably to his office in the Intelligence Division.

Itachi watched him go before turning to find a pouting Ino. “What’d he say to you?”

“You knew?”

“Of course. He said he wanted to say hi, but Dad doesn’t just say hi to people. What’d he want?”

“He just said to look after you. It’s fine,” Itachi assured. “You won’t be getting hurt any more than you are in training and I find the sentiment rather sweet.”

Ino blushed and gritted her teeth. “No way, it’s embarrassing!”

Holding back laughter, Itachi was spared having to reply when the rest of their team joined them. “Good morning, Choji, Shikamaru. If you’re all ready, we can head up and take a mission.”

The three nodded and much to Itachi’s surprise, Choji didn’t open a bag of crisps along the way or even as they were invited into the Hokage’s Office.

“Ah, Team Ten. I was beginning to wonder when you would finally come here,” the Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, greeted, smiling at them in a grandfatherly manner.

Itachi bowed, flushing slightly, “My apologies, Lord Hokage. I wanted to get a feel for my students before accepting missions with them. We’re here now.”

“So you are.” The Hokage looked down at a scroll half open on his desk. “I’d like you to clear out a panda infestation in Chozama Ikiru’s farm on the Western border. He’s reported that they are destroying his bamboo crop but requests the animals not be harmed.” Rolling up the scroll, the Hokage held it out for one of Team Ten to take. “All the information you need is in here, please return when you have finished and report to me to receive payment.”

Taking the scroll, Itachi bowed, “Yes, Lord Hokage.” His team quickly followed suit, copying his bow and reply.

The Hokage sent them off with a smile and Itachi lead the way back into the village proper. Within an hour they were at the mission site, checking equipment and receiving wireless communication equipment from Itachi, who checked the fit on each of the preteens before nodding.

“So, are you all content with the plan?” Itachi asked them.

“Split off throughout the farm land and find out how many pandas we’re dealing with,” Shikamaru nodded.

“Once the recon’s done, we want to herd them out towards the forest,” Choji continued.

“Then we do regular perimeter checks while the fence keeping the pandas out is replaced,” finished Ino.

“All the while keeping regular contact,” Itachi nodded. He took a moment to show them how the wireless worked before allowing them to go off on their own, finding a vantage point where he could keep an eye on the situation, although really it was a very simple mission he was overcomplicating for the sake of getting them used to mission mechanics.

On real missions, Itachi couldn’t be everywhere at once, so wirelesses were important to keep track of his team, as well as have them aware of each other’s positions. Planning was also important, and Itachi found it confusing that Ino regularly took charge of them when he had the group working as a three instead of Shikamaru, who only seemed interested in leading when the situation turned dire. Like himself, Shikamaru was more than able to think several steps ahead but had taken up the path of least resistance by letting the more headstrong Ino take point. It wasn’t a problem, Ino was a relatively good leader, and seemed to be improving little by little; whether it be by asking Shikamaru for an opinion or simply being less forward in her tactics. Because while Itachi had made every effort to increase their hand-to-hand combat and reflexes, they were, by all accounts, a defensive, information gathering team. Not front line fighters.

Itachi glanced over to the western flank as Choji barrelled out towards the first panda that had been spotted, causing it to run towards the forest and its three companions, which were being guided by carefully thrown shuriken and kunai on wires by Shikamaru and Ino so they could be removed before Choji rolled through.

“Good job,” he praised, speaking for the first time on the channel. “You’re herding them nicely. Forest edge in twenty metres, Choji.” Affirmations rang back to him and Itachi watched as Choji bounced while deactivating his jutsu. Flipping mid-air, he landed rather stylishly and watched with the rest of his team as the pandas fled back to the forest where they belonged.

“Nice moves, Choji!” Ino praised. “I totally thought you were cool for a second there.”

“Sh-shut up, Ino!”

Itachi lept down to his team, ignoring Choji’s blush, gesturing them over to him with a wave of his hand. “That’s the first part down. And the most exciting part,” he admitted. “I’ve sent a Shadow Clone to alert the farmer. Next is a lengthy wait while the fence is replaced. I think the pandas are probably spooked enough so as not to return, but it’s part of the mission so…” he drifted off with a shrug.

“I can see why you don’t like D-Ranks, Sensei,” Shikamaru noted on the comms a few hours later. “This is the biggest drag.”

“It’s not that I don’t like them, I did many when I was a Genin like you, but they aren’t very representative of ninja life,” said Itachi.

“And they’re boring,” Ino put in.

“How many have you done, Sensei?” Choji asked.

“Fifty-three.”

“WHAT?!” Ino and Choji screeched down the line, making Itachi blink harshly while taking a sharp intake of breath.

“You sat around for days at a time doing missions like this?” Shikamaru asked at a much more reasonable volume.

Since they couldn’t see him shrug, Itachi responded. “It wasn’t so bad. I got to have dango for lunch every time we did.”

“Still. Fifty-three?” Ino balked. “You’re not going to make _us_ do fifty-three right?” she half-begged.

“Oh no. I had to do so many because my Jonin sensei refused to put me in for the Chūnin exams,” Itachi comforted. “If you three keep performing as you have we can progress at a more normal pace.”

Ino hummed, “How long do you think that’ll take?”

“As long as it takes,” Itachi chastised. “With any luck, we’ll only be here for another hour, then we’ll go collect our pay and you’ll be free for the rest of the day.”

“Well, that’s something at least,” Choji noted, voice muffled in the way it usually was when he was eating. He must have opened another bag of crisps.

#

It actually took two further hours to confirm the fence was up and stable, but after that, they were able to get to the Hokage Tower and give their report in good time. Ino left for her family’s shop, while Choji and Shikamaru went to find somewhere to spend their meagre mission reward.

Itachi meanwhile decided to go train. He had tactics to consider and drills to complete to keep his reflexes up.

As he twirled around in the air, throwing kunai and listening to the series of dull thunks as they sank into targets spread out around the training field, Itachi tried to assess his team against an average Genin team. He himself had graduated at eight, and somehow had been far more adept than the rest of his squad. His father had put it down to Itachi being a prodigy but Itachi wasn’t sure that was the case. There was simply an expectation of him and Itachi had worked until that expectation was met. Anything else was for his own benefit.

“Itachi-sensei,” called out a voice. He’d felt the charkra approach, but as it had made itself obvious and unthreatening, Itachi had simply assumed the owner was passing by. Clearly he was wrong.

Landing in a crouch, Itachi stood and looked around until he found the owner up on a tree branch.

“Ah. Kakashi.”

“Kakashi- _sensei_ ,” Kakashi emphasised. “I thought I told you that.”

“You did. I can’t say I care for honorifics though,” Itachi shrugged. “I didn’t think you did either, or are you starting to feel special, having the Fourth’s legacy and the heir to the Uchiha clan under your care?”

Kakashi’s visible eye narrowed. “Truth be told, no, I don’t. Though if I had to pick a child to be prouder of, it would be Naruto. He has a lot of his parents in him.”

“He does,” Itachi conceded. “Though he’s misinterpreting what it means to become Hokage.”

“Ah, he feed you that line too. About being recognised by everyone?”

“Yes, very loudly. Followed by ramen spittle.”

Kakashi snorted at that and jumped down to join Itachi in the clearing. “Well. That must mean you still have some social skills buried under that… Uchiha-ness. Care to join Kurenai-sensei and I for a drink?”

“I’m not legal,” Itachi noted dryly.

Kakashi scratched the side of his face. “Well… have juice then. Or water.” Itachi narrowed his eyes and Kakashi continued, “We’re the only three to have passing teams, so Kurenai suggested getting to properly know one another. I don’t think it’s a terrible idea.”

“No,” Itachi said after a beat. “I suppose it isn’t.” Sighing, he looked around at his kunai. “Let me pick these up and we can go.”

“Alright,” Kakashi said happily, his eye crinkling in a way that suggested he was smiling beneath the mask.

Despite deliberately taking his time, Itachi could only stall for so long before reluctantly following Kakashi back into the village and into Shushu-ya, where they found Yuhi Kurenai already seated in a booth.

“Ah, Itachi-sensei,” the woman greeted pleasantly. “Thank you for joining us.”

“Thank you for inviting me,” he replied with the same courtesy long clan meetings had taught him. He had rather wished that being disowned meant less pretending to be polite to people, but somehow the reality didn’t match. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the red eyed ninja, he didn’t know her well enough to have an opinion of her, but he also didn’t want to be there with her and Kakashi.

Still. It wasn’t like he had anything to lose by coming. And if he ended up on a mission with either Jonin and their Genin teams, it was probably best they were at least on cordial terms.

He slid into the booth and raised an eyebrow as Kakashi slid in next to him. He really wasn’t used to people sitting next to him in public places.

If Kakashi noticed Itachi’s surprise, he ignored it, more intent on waving down a server. “Sake please.”

“And yakitori,” Itachi added, remembering the skewers here were particularly good.

“Enough of each for the table please,” said Kurenai.

The server nodded, her gaze lingering unfavourably on Itachi a moment before going to fetch their order. Putting one elbow on the table, Itachi rested his head against his fist. “So, we’re the only Jonin leaders this year?” he started weakly, trying to figure out if there was anything more to this meeting.

“That’s right. I’m sensei to Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Aburame Shino,” Kurenai confirmed. “I heard you have the Yamanaka, Nara and Akamichi heirs?” Itachi nodded.

“Not much of a talker, huh?” Kakashi noted.

Itachi rolled his eyes, but didn’t comment.

“How are you finding being a sensei, Itachi-sensei?” Kurenai asked.

“Just Itachi, please. And I suppose it’s alright,” he shrugged. “They seem to work well together.”

“I heard you only went on your first mission today,” Kakashi said, “Want to explain why?”

Itachi’s eyes narrowed. “I didn’t realise it was a crime to want to train with my team before performing missions.”

“It’s not,” Kurenai assured, “Just odd. It’s been a month after all. You don’t want them falling behind.”

“Behind?” Itachi regarded her with a frown. “They’re fine,” he insisted, resisting a childish urge to suggest his team was probably more organised than either of theirs.

Their drink arrived and while Itachi saw a third cup, he pointedly ignored it. Being related to every police officer in the village, it wasn’t worth tempting fate and ending up in Konoha’s cells because his clansmen felt obliged to enforce the law. Because they would. They all knew exactly how old he was and ninja or not, seventeen was too young to drink alcohol. Even if Shisui had half-forced Itachi to share a bottle of sake with him on Shisui’s twentieth birthday.

“Maybe, but they certainly lack practical experience,” Kakashi stated, pouring himself and Kurenai a drink and turning the third cup, Itachi’s, upside down so servers would know it wasn’t being used.

“They’ll be fine,” Itachi assured. “I intend to do at least one mission a week from now on and their training is going well enough I’d be happy to put them forward for Chūnin during the next exam registration.”

“You would? Registration is awfully close,” Kurenai pointed out.

“Of course. Are you intending to hold your teams back?” Itachi queried.

Kurenai shook her head. “No.”

“Maybe,” Kakashi hummed. At Itachi and Kurenai’s curious looks, he explained. “My team… are a little lacking in the fundamentals. Individually they have skills, but Sakura is noticeably behind her peers in ninjutsu knowledge and skill and Sasuke and Naruto don’t appear to have a co-operative bone in their bodies unless I threaten to send them back to the academy.”

While that wasn’t much of a surprise to Itachi, he and his brother had been raised to be very independent, both in home life and in in battle, he was upset to hear Sasuke wasn’t succeeding as well as he’d hoped.

“What about having those two teach Sakura a jutsu or two?” Kurenai suggested. “It could be team building, and either way, Sakura has the opportunity to expand her repertoire.”

Kakashi hummed and looked up in thought as their yakitori arrived. “Well. Perhaps. Naruto would be all too willing to show her his Shadow Clone jutsu. But I can’t see Sasuke showing her any Fire Style.”

“What about your team, Kurenai-sensei?” Itachi asked as he took a skewer, wondering if this was the point of their meeting. “Are they doing well?”

Kurenai nodded, “They’re all very capable. Hinata is shy, so I’m working on that, but she already has access to her Byakugan. Kiba… is closer to his dog than either of his teammates, but that’s not exactly a problem, and Shino is a bit of a loner. They get along well, it’s just you can tell they weren’t friends before-hand.”

Playing with the tip of the skewer in his mouth, Itachi noted these were minor, surface complaints at most. It sounded more like he was at a parental meeting with them all having somehow escaped their children.

“And you, Itachi?” Kurenai asked with a tilt of her head, drawing Itachi out of his thoughts.

It occurred to him that while his team had issues, they were half caused by Itachi’s overly high expectations and half by his inexperience in teaching. Which arguably meant the only person there was a problem with was himself, and Itachi had a vague idea about how to fix that.

“Choji and Shikamaru have good camaraderie, they work well with Ino,” he started. “Ino’s leadership skills are improving with Shikamaru’s aid. He’s the better leader, but only takes point when the situation forces him to. Choji is obsessed with crisps beyond any hope of stealth, but fulfils his part well in the Ino-Shika-Cho layout. His speed and mobility are great and his comrades are increasing their dexterity and charka reserves to better secure targets.” Itachi nodded. “All in all, I’m proud of their growth. Missions with them should be very successful.”

He hadn’t been looking anywhere in particular when he had spoken, but noticing that his words were followed by silence, he turned to see Kurenai and Kakashi looking at him in shock.

Kakashi blinked. “I’ve never heard you talk so much.”

Itachi shrugged. “I’ve been thinking on it a while. I’ve built up their individual skills, and together they work extremely well. But I’m aware I don’t really know them well as people. Do you think it would be odd to spend more time with them?” he asked, genuinely unsure. He wasn’t the most social of people in general, and the few times he had spent time with teammates outside of missions had felt decidedly awkward, either because Itachi wasn’t interested in the lines of conversation or because his companions enjoyed seeing how much they could drink before they decided they could see chakra. Or fairies.

“I mean… I suppose not?” Kakashi said, looking to Kurenai for assurance.

“It’s probably a good thing,” she agreed. “There’s certainly nothing wrong with having a good knowledge of your team beyond their skills.”

Itachi nodded, decision made.


	4. Chapter 3: Teamwork

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, I know it's been a while, but with Covid being a thing and my country in lockdown I've had time and means to write a lot more, so I'll be uploading more frequently again for at least a while, since I've been outside like... 4 or 5 times in the last four weeks.

Flopping onto the floor panting and sweating, Shikamaru looked up at the sky. It seemed pretty nice out. The clouds were lazily drifting across the sky. Teasing him with their calm. He'd much rather be on a roof somewhere watching them go by, and maybe having a nap.

"Shikamaru, once more."

Instead, he groaned, working into a sitting position. He was stuck in solo training with his sensei, working his ass off for relatively little praise. Not that he was looking for it.

"Can't we do something else, Sensei?" Shikamaru tried. "I'm exhausted."

Itachi paused, stood above him hardly breaking a sweat. "Like what?"

Momentarily caught off guard, Shikamaru gave his answer some thought. Do nothing would be a bad answer, so… second to that… "Shogi?" he tried.

"Sure. I don't have a set of my own though," Itachi shrugged. "Do you?"

Shikamaru blinked owlishly. Was Itachi serious? "Uh, no, but… I play with my Dad a lot at home, we can just use that set."

Itachi put his hands in his pocket. "Alright. Lead the way."

Even as they walked through the village into the Nara District, Shikamaru was still waiting for the trick. This was… weird. Itachi-sensei had never expressed an interest in anything other than training and that one time he bought flowers from Ino's shop.

They actually got all the way to Shikamaru's house before anyone spoke, and that was because Shikamaru's father, Shikaku, opened the door as Shikamaru tried to open it himself. He and Shikamaru were spitting images of each other about 20 years apart, though Shikaku donned a deer skinned vest over his flack jacket and bore a scar over his right cheek and forehead.

"Oh, Shikamaru… and Uchiha Itachi," Shikaku hummed. "Should I assume my son is in trouble, Sensei?"

"D-Dad!" Shikamaru balked, turning to see Itachi's reaction in horror.

"Oh no, Lord Shikaku," Itachi assured. "Shikamaru just suggested that our training time might be better utilised by testing his tactical skills in a few rounds of Shogi."

Shikaku was still for a moment before scoffing. "Shikamaru. Here's 20,000 Ryo," he said, reaching into his pocket and handing several notes to his confused son, "Give it to Itachi-sensei if he beats you."

"You seem really confident in Shikamaru's ability," Itachi noted.

"Of course. I've played you both on separate occasions. Shikamaru will have you in check before you've realised you can't escape," Shikaku assured. "Anyway, I have to get going. Have fun, help yourself to the fridge." He sidestepped the two and waved a hand in farewell.

"What… the heck..?" Shikamaru blinked, staring after his father with wide eyes.

"Hmm. Interesting," Itachi mused, also looking at Shikaku's back before the man body flickered away. "Are you going to invite me in?"

"Wha-? Uh, yeah. Come on." Blushing Shikamaru made his way inside, removing his sandals and waiting for Itachi to follow suit before leading the way into his home. There were no guest slippers, but Itachi didn't comment and Shikamaru let them along the wooden engawa running the edge of Shikamaru's home. "Dad keeps the Shogi set in the living room. Are you bothered about playing out here on the en?"

"Hmm? No, outside is fine. You have an amazing view," Itachi praised, catching sight of a couple of deer. The Nara's various houses were built near the forests of Konoha, and Shikamaru's being the main household held the best spot for viewing the more tame wildlife in the forest.

Shikamaru frowned, Shogi set in his arms. "I guess. Mostly it's just a drag when an elk wanders off with someone's laundry." He set the board down and opened up two compartments, beginning to set the pieces. "Do you want to go first?"

"I don't mind. We can flip a coin if you like?"

"Urgh, no, that's effort. You can go first." Shikamaru waved a hand dismissively. After a few minutes, he spoke up again. "Whenever you're ready, Sensei."

Looking away from the forest to the board, Itachi nodded and slipped to his knees, surveying the board and Shikamaru for a moment before making his opening move, the pieces clacking on the board as he and Shikamaru moved them.

It wasn't until several minutes in that there was a pause as Shikamaru surveyed the board. His hands fell into his lap, cupped and fingertips touching and his eyes closed. Itachi watched patiently, presumably used to people taking their time. Shogi was a relatively slow game after all. Shikamaru was in a bad place on the board. Itachi had taken both rooks and had set his sights on the bishop, intending to bait out Shikamaru's silver general.

He'd been playing defensively before, getting a feel for Itachi's strategy and play style. Any thoughts Itachi might have had about Shikamaru's inexperience likely washed away at the focused, expressionless look Shikamaru had on his face once his deliberation was over. It was simple. The next ten moves were planned and predicted.

Within three moves, Shikamaru had sidestepped Itachi's flank assault and promoted his lance and bishop making Itachi's answers more difficult. Still, it almost seemed like Itachi was now holding back. His fingers hesitated over pieces before moving others instead. The assault of the board from Itachi's side never got as aggressive as Shikamaru predicted it should. Not that it mattered. Shikamaru was going to win.

And win he did, in another five moves.

"You threw that match," Shikamaru noted impassively.

"You'd won a good ten moves previous. I lost the moment you got a dragon horse behind my lines."

Shikamaru blinked and shrugged a shoulder. "You could have scooped you know."

"No, it's fine. I wasn't sure if your focus would last," Itachi answered with an absent air. "And anyway, I'm your sensei. It would be bad if I was a sore loser. Another game?"

"… Sure," Shikamaru replied slowly. They both reached out to reset the pieces.

"That thing you were doing with your hands," Itachi started slowly. "It's not a traditional hand sign…"

"Hmm? Nah, it's just a thing I do sometimes, helps me focus," Shikamaru explained. "Dad says the best way to prepare is to think several steps ahead. I mean, he's not wrong. I can win most Shogi games that aren't against him. But that's 'cause he's thinking further ahead than me."

"It's good advice for ninja as well," Itachi reasoned, opening the game again. "Being ahead of your opponent or target is the best way to minimalize casualties. You can find openings in their guard to slip your teammates through or learn their behaviours and anticipate what to say to get a necessary reaction. Rile them up and take advantage of blind rage for example."

"Yeah, but you have to assess the risks that go with risky moves like that," Shikamaru replied, "like what if they're bluffing?"

The tiles clacked between them and even while talking, Shikamaru was able to stay ahead of Itachi. Match after match they played, Itachi trying various strategies against Shikamaru, backing the boy into a corner he barely managed to escape before starting his own assault.

It was late into the evening before they were disturbed. "Are you two still playing?" Came the voice of Shikaku. "Can't take losing, Itachi-sensei?"

"Actually, he's won a few," Shikamaru commented, frowning at the horrible board layout. His rook could _maybe_ back up the lance if he played the next four turns right, but Itachi's focus looked to be twisting to his bishops. Frowning, he moved the gold general out of range and tried to direct Itachi to where he wanted him on the board.

"But my money's still on the table," Shikaku noted, sitting between his son and Itachi.

"Honestly, I'd forgotten you'd bet," Itachi mumbled, finger to his lips as he thought about his next moves. "Besides, I've still lost more than I've won, you can keep it."

Playing against his sensei was harder than expected, a massive mental workout. But it was fun in a way, Shikamaru mused as Itachi pressed his advantage on the left flank. Playing someone on a similar level rather than being soundly defeated by his father every game. The board clacking was the only noise for several moments before Shikaku announced, "You've lost, Shikamaru."

"Have not."

"Sure you have. In two turns, that play with your lance and bishop you're going for is gonna be waylaid. Itachi'll step his silver general back and his dragon horse will swoop in."

"It was going for my knight though-"

"It really wasn't," Itachi agreed. "You've noticed by now I lean on diversionary tactics and red-herrings yes? Well that's exactly what I'm going for here."

"You've played practically every strategy in Shogi there is," Shikamaru argued.

"Yes, but this is… for a lack of better term, the 'real me'. I'm familiar with most if not all strategies, particularly your defensive one, but this is generally how I play the game. Systematically dragging you closer and looking like I intend to challenge your defence when really I want to take your attackers." It wasn't a terrible play style, but it relied on Itachi's ability to conceal his intentions perfectly. Every little movement in Shogi gave something away and that Shikamaru couldn't see through it was both annoying and showed off just how solid Itachi's poker face was.

Looking at the board for long moments, Shikamaru eventually huffed. "Damnit, what a drag. Dad's right, you had me. Fuck."

Itachi smiled, "I used to play with a friend. He liked adding genjutsu to the mix. It's genuinely the worst sitting there and trying to figure out which pieces are in the right place or even real, let alone forming strategies."

"As much as I wouldn't mind doing this again sometime, I can't think of anything worse than having to constantly mess with my chakra flow while thinking about my next moves," Shikamaru admitted.

"Oh yes, it's awful," Itachi agreed with a smile, slowly getting to his feet. "It's nice getting a challenge out of someone normally."

"Do you still play with that friend?" Shikamaru asked.

"No," Itachi replied, his smile not faltering. "He's an Uchiha. I don't even say hello to them in the street. Anyway, I've obviously taken up a lot of your time. I'll be going. Thank you for your hospitality, Shikamaru, Lord Shikaku."

Stunned by the answer, Shikamaru sat there in silence as Shikaku offered a polite reply and Itachi let himself out.

"He… doesn't even say hello in the street?"

"I suppose to him, he still feels betrayed by his clan," Shikaku shrugged. "He's a dangerous man, your Sensei. But so long as he toes the line, I've no problem with him coming here to play Shogi or training you. Choza and Inoichi are of the same opinion," Shikaku disclosed, shifting to take Itachi's place and setting the pieces up. "He's also quite the enigma."

"Yeah… I'm beginning to see that…" Shikamaru looked down in his lap in thought. "Why was he kicked out of his clan?"

"He proposed treason," Shikaku shrugged. "It was reported to Lord Hokage, who chose to give Itachi a second chance. He was taken off active duty for a fair bit though. I don't doubt the two are related."

"Do you think making him a Genin Sensei is a test?"

"From Lord Hokage? It wouldn't surprise me," Shikaku shrugged again. "Uchiha Fugaku's been easier to deal with since Itachi left his clan though, so it's hard to say where my opinion on the matter lies. On the one hand, stuff was obviously going on at the time, but none of the Uchiha are willing to talk about it, and on the other, they're much more positive people since that time that it kinda makes you forget there was ever tension."

"Tension?"

"Yeah, a little after the demon fox attack, the village elders moved the clan districts around some. The Uchiha bitched for weeks about it, even though they got a bunch of land and private training grounds. And around the same time, Itachi passed the Genin exam within six months of entering the academy."

"T-that's insane."

"No, insane is the fact he started sending a Shadow Clone to his lessons at six years old. It's fucking creepy how adept he is. It's like he was born to be a ninja, and his body doesn't know how to do anything else," Shikaku reflected.

Shikamaru frowned. "Where's his affinity?"

"Anything really. He was classed as a ninjustu type with fire affinity, but he had perfect scores across the board and won matches in the Chuunin exam purely through using genjutsu. The only possible criticism I have is that a lot of the jutsu he uses are flashy and waste a lot of chakra if he doesn't land a hit, so I doubt he has amazing stamina. He's fast though."

"Yeah, tell me about it. Most days I can't even graze him in training unless he lets it happen. Which sucks because he's been focusing on combat until literally today."

"You sound angry at that?"

"It's a drag. I hate all that fighting and he knows it."

Shikaku scratched his chin. Then lent forward and threw a punch at Shikamaru, who raised an arm before turning his head to stare at their locked limbs. "Dad-!"

"He's working muscle memory into you. It's not a bad tactic, but I suppose he must think it's time to lay off and try get that old-man brain of yours working," Shikaku teased, pulling back and settling back down. "His methods are… odd. But I can't say I disapprove."

Shikamaru huffed and looked to the clouds. "I don't think Ino's dad thinks the same. She mentioned he went ballistic the first mission we had."

"Inoichi's just protective," Shikaku dismissed. "He doesn't want his little girl to grow up. It's hilarious," he added with a smirk, "he'll get over it soon. Especially if Itachi puts you all in for Chuunin exams."

"They're soon?" He'd heard about them. A nationwide series of ninja tests that moved host village every six months. It was good for networking ties with the other ninja villages. "They must be in Konoha then, I can't see anyone signing off on fresh out of the academy teams travelling to a foreign country for the Chuunin exam."

"Right on both counts, Shikamaru," his father nodded. "Less than a couple of months from now. We're starting prep but so far not a huge number of teams from other countries have applied. Generally the host nation makes up most of their numbers as it's a quick way to promote large numbers of able ninja at once."

"Still… do you think we could make Chuunin?" Shikamaru frowned.

Shikaku returned the gesture. "Hell if I know. If you'd asked me a month ago, I'd have said absolutely not. But now? Eh, you're actually training, which is more than I expected. I figured you and Choji would be blowing your sensei off and hitting a barbeque joint, yet three times a week you go out early and come back all scuffed up and exhausted. I'm impressed, but I don't know that it'll make you Chuunin."

* * *

"You too huh?" Choji noted around a mouthful of food as Shikamaru told them about his now semi-regular Shogi matches with Itachi.

He and Shikamaru were in a barbecue restaurant following group training, and for once, Ino had joined them, though Itachi had opted to go home. Or perhaps run some errands, he hadn't been overly clear. Not that Shikamaru was interested. "What do you mean, me too, Choji?"

"Sensei took me out for lunch a couple of times," Choji explained. "We talked about different chip flavours and what the Ino-Shika-Cho formation is."

"You mean that thing our dads did?" Ino blinked, then looked fearful. "We… don't have to do that do we?"

"I mean… probably? Isn't that what we basically do on team days anyway?" Choji asked. "Sensei said the Akimichi creates an opening for the Nara with big, bold, chakra intensive attacks, like the Human Boulder. Then, the Nara holds the opponent in place so the Yamanaka can take over the enemy and gain intel."

"Well, yeah, Choji. We know that," Ino frowned. "But then my body's abandoned on the floor, and if we're against more than one person, that becomes really hard to do."

"Did you know that once one enemy is captured the Nara becomes in charge of protecting the Yamanaka? They often use Shadow Possession to animate the unconscious body and mirror fight."

"I'm not looking after Ino's limp body for ages," Shikamaru argued.

Ino growled, "Like hell I'd let you near my unprotected body anyway. You're terrible at mirror fighting."

"Am not."

"Yes you are! I nearly took a kunai to the face last time!"

"You were distracting me by talking my ear off!" Shikamaru retorted. "At least if you were unconscious I could think."

Ino growled and half rose, hand slamming into the table.

"Ino, chill," tried Choji, "you too, Shikamaru. We're teammates, we shouldn't be fighting."

"We're not fighting," argued Shikamaru.

"Oh yes we are!" shot Ino.

Choji sighed and flopped back in his seat groaning, "Guys…" Looking around for something to break up the fight-not-fight of his comrades, Choji pointed out the window. "Hey look. It's Itachi-sensei, with Kurenai-sensei and Kakashi-sensei."

"Huh? Sakura and Hinata's Sensei?" Ino blink, attention completely redirected for the moment. "Why would they all be together?"

"Maybe they're having a pep-talk?" Shikamaru asked looking too, seeing the three teachers at a dango restaurant across the way. Itachi looked small against Kakashi and Kurenai, face partially hidden by a high collared shirt, similar to the ones Sasuke usually wore, as well as being physically smaller than both adults. The two had Itachi caught between them, and Shikamaru had the distinct impression that Itachi would rather be anywhere else but there.

"Do you wanna go spy?" Ino asked.

"Yeah, because that worked so well last time," Shikamaru frowned, remembering the torture that followed the ANBU mask debacle.

"We could just ask him," Choji shrugged. "What? He kinda seems less creepy and more approachable now," he said to Ino and Shikamaru's incredulous looks.

Ino shook her head, "I… really don't think so."

"Why's Kakashi-sensei the only one in uniform?" wondered Choji. The three were all still staring at the sensei in the dango shop, earlier squabble forgotten in curiosity, their barbeque smoking gently.

"I think it's more Itachi-sensei is the only one _not_ in uniform," said Shikamaru, "I've met Kiba after training before and that's what Kurenai-sensei was wearing."

"Alright, but that still leaves us why those three are meeting up and why Itachi-sensei isn't in uniform," Ino pressed.

"I dunno," shrugged Shikamaru. "Maybe they kidnapped him?"

Choji nodded, "Yeah, he really doesn't look happy about being there."

"Well, in that case, we should totally rescue him."

Both boys snapped their gaze away to Ino.

"Uhh…"

"What?"

"What?!" Ino echoed Choji. "If he doesn't want to be there, he can join us."

"But like… what if he's got some Jonin work to do or something?" Choji frowned.

Shikamaru hummed, "And anyway, we've just trained with him for the last three hours, we _stink_. No way would the other Jonin would believe us. It could get Itachi-sensei in trouble."

Ino huffed and put her elbows on the table and rested her chin in her hands. "Yeah… but… should we really leave him to it?"

Shikamaru waved a hand, "Sensei's a big boy, I'm sure he can handle it."

Choji hummed in agreement, expertly looking after their lunch. Ino watched the chubby kid and his deft fingers for a long while before smirking. "Choji…"

"Hmm?"

"Come with me to Itachi-sensei and I'll buy you a rack of ribs."

Choji's eyes darted up, a dark twinkle set in his gaze. "You serious, Ino?"

Ino nodded, "Of course. I wouldn't joke to you about food."

Choji chuckled and turn to Shikamaru. "Get it ordered, Shikamaru. Ino and me won't be long."

"Guys…" Shikamaru blinked in disbelief. "Hey, wait! I'm pretty sure this is a bad idea!"

"Well, someone has to look after our table," reasoned Ino.

"Not that!"

"It'll be fine, Shikamaru," Choji smiled, following Ino up and heading towards the door. "No matter what happens, I can't die while I know there's ribs waiting for me."

Shikamaru's mouth hung open.

"Extra barbecue sauce too."

His eye twitched. Turning away from Choji and Ino's retreating backs, Shikamaru eventually flagged down a server and asked for the ribs, before turning to the window, spotting his teammates walking over to the group of sensei. "This has to be a disaster," he mumbled to himself, chin in his hand.

And yet… not. Shikamaru watched the group for what felt like an age. Ino walked up with her usual air of owning the place. Kakashi looked up first, followed by the other sensei.

It was too far away to lip-read, and Shikamaru's skill in that wasn't particularly great either. But… it didn't seem to be going horribly. The sensei didn't seem mad and Itachi actually had that slight sag to his left that Shikamaru had begun to recognise as relief. Itachi stood after a time and Ino grabbed his hand, dragging him towards the barbeque restaurant, the three returning to the table just as Choji's ribs arrived.

"Yeah! Now that's what I'm talking about!" Choji grinned and jabbed a finger at Ino. "Don't forget you're paying for these."

"Yeah, yeah, fatty. Just sit down already." Ino waved her hand and nudged Itachi into their booth, sliding in next to him and trapping the older teen between her and the window.

"So, are you saved or abducted?" Shikamaru asked, steepling his fingers.

"Hello to you too, Shikamaru." Itachi slouched slightly and put an elbow on the table, knuckles resting against his lips.

"That's not an answer, Sensei. We can always send you back."

Itachi shifted, closing his eyes slightly. A scoff to the trained eye. "Saved."

"What did they want you for?" Shikamaru interrogated, adding to Ino, "And how did you get him out of it?"

"General asking after me. I don't like being asked after," Itachi answered evasively.

"Oh, I just made out like Itachi-sensei ran off when it's his turn to pay," Ino shrugged.

"Speaking of, Sensei, do you want anything? Ino's buying," said Choji.

"Maybe don't poke the pig," Shikamaru said quietly, leaning away from a seething Ino. Even with a table between them, he didn't trust she wouldn't try break Choji's neck.

Itachi shook his head slightly. "I'm fine, thank you."

"I can't decide if it's worse you'd prefer to be socially awkward with us than with the other sensei," Shikamaru said after a minute of silence only permeated by Choji's ribs sizzling.

Itachi tilted his head to one side. "Socially awkward?"

"Yeah, we're not exactly having a conversation, and the other Jonin looked more like they were talking _at_ you rather than _with_ you."

Itachi looked at Shikamaru for a long moment before shrugging one shoulder. "I'm boring I guess. I like my own company." The underlying _but people keep bothering me_ , didn't go unnoticed by Shikamaru.

"You made a lot of effort lately. I was half convinced you don't do anything but train," he said, thinking about the recent decision Itachi had to… hang out, with his team.

"Generally I don't," Itachi said, not missing a beat. "I like training. But I thought if I got to know you all better I could get you to like training too."

"Wait, that's why we talked about chip flavours? So I'd train?" Choji frowned, rib frozen halfway to his face.

"In a manner of speaking. It's not so much your abilities that are lacking – though I would appreciate it if all of you increased your jutsu repertoire," Itachi said, giving each of them a pointed look, "but my ability to understand your motivations and trust in you. So I thought I'd try to fix that by focusing on things you like to do and being interested in that."

"So… you wanna be our friend?" guessed Ino.

"More like we're his guinea pigs because he doesn't human," Shikamaru shrugged.

Choji hummed, talking around a mouth full of barbeque ribs, "Like Sasuke then, but with more authority and less 'you-are-dirt-to-me'."

"That… You know I can hear you right?" Itachi asked, incredulous.

Waving at a server, Choji said loudly, "Sensei says we need more barbeque ribs!"

* * *

Back at the tea shop, Kakashi and Kurenai stood watching Team Ten in their booth.

"It looks like he's having fun," Kurenai mused as Itachi sagged deeper in his seat.

"Is that what that is? Looks more to me like he's trying to phase through the window," Kakashi replied, Icha-Icha open in one hand, though his gaze wasn't on the pages of well-written filth. "Something obviously is amiss. It didn't make sense when he got kicked out, and it makes even less sense he's been made a Genin teacher the same year his little brother graduated."

"We'll figure it out," Kurenai assured "For now, let's just take some solace in the fact he's not as robotic as we first thought and that his team think enough of him to want to spend time with him."

Kakashi hummed and in the next instant, both Jonin had vanished, leaving behind three cups of steaming tea on the table.


	5. Chapter 4: Journey

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bit of a short chapter - but on the plus side plot is happening? Progressing? Well... anyway, things are happening... enjoy!
> 
> To the person who asked if I need a Beta like forever ago, sorry for the late reply... but probably not needed here, currently I'm just copypasta-ing what I have already posted on ff.net, though grant you I am trying to read each one over and catch errors I didn't see the first time around. But it's something I'd be interested in.

"Visuals, anyone? The target should be around here somewhere," Choji said, with only the barest of hitches in his voice.

They were doing another D-Rank mission and Itachi had put him in charge for leadership experience, though it was obvious the boy wasn't inclined to the task. He preferred to follow than take initiative and Itachi had hoped to give Choji a little more confidence in his own abilities by letting him take point.

"All clear here," he responded over the comms, Shikamaru echoing much the same.

"I can't see it, but I'm sure I hear something," came Ino's soft reply.

"Okay… uh…" Choji stammered and Itachi could hear shifting over the comms. He seemed to be waiting for someone to rescue him.

In the end it was Ino that spoke up, "Target spotted! Heading west, I'm in pursuit!"

"West is… Shikamaru?" Choji asked.

"Yup, and I see it too," Shikamaru confirmed. "Fuck that thing's fast. I think it could give you a run for your money, Sensei."

Itachi chuckled a bit as he headed over to join the pursuit. "If only because I'm going to refuse to be the one catching it. I'm supervising, remember?"

"Such a drag."

That got a chuckle out of all the team that was followed by various grunts and cries of surprise. Once he was on the scene, Itachi had to hold back full blown laughter. Ino and Shikamaru were throwing themselves around trying to snag a small cat with a red bow around its right ear, Choji to the side shifting from foot to foot uncertainly.

Hopping over to the boy Itachi put a hand on Choji, startling him. "Take a deep breath and think over what's not working. Why can't they capture the cat?"

"It's fast."

"Yes, but what else?"

Choji was quiet for a moment as he watched his teammates. He jumped a little as the thought came to him. "It's used to being caught."

Itachi nodded. "Yep, this mission turns up at least once a month. That cat is very used to ninja trying to catch it, which is probably why it's so quick."

"So… what should we do?"

Itachi cocked his head, face carefully blank, "What do you think we should do?"

"Sensei…" he half whined, looking between his friends and Itachi.

"Just relax, think about it. How could we catch a cat that's expecting human ambush?" Itachi asked, convinced he'd given too much away. "What does our team specialise in?"

Even so, it took Choji another five minutes to figure out what he should be doing. "E-everyone back off. Shikamaru, hide and try to get a good line of sight on it for Shadow Possession. Ino, we're gonna try flank it and confine it to another clearing."

Dutifully, both Genin yelled a 'hai!' and moved as directed, Shikamaru practically vanishing into the treeline and Ino tried to lure the cat into a clearing large enough for her and Choji to manoeuvre. Choji and Itachi followed behind before the former ran off to help Ino, the take down going smoother now Shikamaru could see the field clearer and get his shadow jutsu working.

Still it took a while and the Genin were irritated and more than a little scratched up by the time they were finished.

"Well done, everyone," Itachi praised, picking up the cat as Shikamaru's jutsu gave out. Claws flashed and the cat went to strike Itachi, only for the older teen to shoot it a glare. Immediately, the cat thought better of the action and went limp. "Good kitty," Itachi praised, bringing the cat closer to himself and holding it supportively.

"H-how'd you do that?" Shikamaru balked, a cut on his cheek bleeding sluggishly.

"Killing intent," Itachi shrugged, gesturing for his team to follow him back to the client, who was waiting for them at the Hokage's Tower. "It's a skill a lot of ninja learn as they get older. You focus your will to kill and creatures and people tend to get a horrible feeling in response. It's an easy way to shut people up quickly, regardless if you genuinely mean to do them harm or not."

"That's both amazing and terrifying," Ino informed him as a large woman covered in fur and jewels ran from the tower towards them, arms open.

"Tora! My baby ah!"

"Madam, Shijimi," Itachi bowed and handed out the cat, ignoring the obvious anguish the cat was in as the Daimo's wife grabbed her pet and tried to smother it with love.

"Thank you so much! Now come, Tora, you must be starving, oh baby, you poor thing," Madam Shijimi cooed, turning away and walking off down the street, a number of guards carefully falling into formation around her.

"I… feel like that cat is begging to be saved," mumbled Choji.

"Probably," Itachi shrugged, taking a step to the Hogake's office. "Let's go collect our reward and if you want, I'll patch you all up before you head home."

"Seriously?" The three balked.

Itachi shrugged a shoulder, "Well, Inoichi at the very least will be furious with me, and it isn't as though bandages are expensive." He smiled a little at the furious blush on Ino's cheeks.

"He's so embarrassing!"

* * *

"Sit wherever you like. Sorry I only have one chair," Itachi added apologetically as he and his team filed into his small apartment. He went to the dresser and removed a large first aid kit, placing it on his desk and pulling out bandages and ointment while the three looked around and situated themselves. Ino and Shikamaru settled on the bed while Choji looked out the window, munching on a bag of snacks.

Taking his desk chair and moving it closer to the bed, Itachi started with Ino, only because she was nearest, and smirked a little realising Shikamaru and Choji were eyeing the hidden bed panel that hid his ANBU uniform and trying to look like they weren't.

"Something funny, Sensei? Ow," Ino hissed as he pressed an antiseptic soaked pad into the wounds on her arm.

"Just thinking this is the busiest my apartment's ever been," Itachi lied.

"It looks like you're never here yourself," she argued, Itachi shrugging in response.

"I'm here more now than I used to be," he answered, "I used to go on missions for long periods of time before becoming a sensei." Though to be fair, he spent that time training now since he couldn't be as rigorous on himself when training his team. There was also the occasional secret meeting with Shisui or Fugaku, though in general they were so infrequent that it was relatively easy to fit them in.

"Still… don't you… _do_ anything?"

"I read," Itachi replied with not even the barest hint of offense, tipping his head to the bedside.

"That's the book from before," Shikamaru noted. "You didn't finish it?"

"Not yet," Itachi said, pausing after pressing a plaster over Ino's cut to pass Shikamaru the book. "I'm at the section regarding the Yata Mirror."

"It's all just legends and like… people not knowing what ninjutsu was right?" Shikamaru asked as he flipped the book open.

Itachi shrugged, "Maybe, but I like having a look around at the sites and seeing where people got those ideas from. How much of it is fiction based off of their environment and how much of it has basis in fact."

There was quiet from the three, broken by Choji, "You sound older than Shikamaru when he wants a nap."

"Hey, you join me in those!"

"Yeah, and you still sound like my great-grandpa!"

Itachi gave an aborted snort. The comment had caught him off-guard, but it wasn't like he wasn't aware his hobbies were odd. "Considering I've bumped into Lord Hokage a couple of times while doing so, I think you're right," he agreed.

"Did he tell you off?" Choji asked. "Lord Hokage told us off for sleeping on the Stone Faces."

"No, we spoke about possibility of dragons and whether they should have wings or not."

Three pairs of eyes blinked at him in astonishment.

"Uh... is… that something you want to discuss?" Itachi asked hesitantly, not at all sure if the looks on his students bode good or not.

"More like we want to know why you and Lord Hokage were talking about dragons in any kind of serious manner," Ino explained.

"Well, animal summons exist, and many of them are capable of ninjutsu," Itachi explained, finishing with Ino and shifting on to Shikamaru. "So we were discussing if dragons had summons. Lord Hokage argued they were probably just snakes as most depictions of dragons have scales and the sizes of summons combined with the variety of jutsu could make it possible for a flying snake and its summoner ninja could be mistaken for a mythical beast."

"All I'm hearing is that you genuinely believe in dragons," Shikamaru stated, frowning.

Itachi didn't deny it. "I'm open to the possibility of them."

"Next you'll be telling us it's okay to wear your ANBU mask."

Itachi cocked an eyebrow, "I'd rather you didn't, but if you really feel the need, I'm not going to stop you."

"Who are you and what have you done with Itachi-sensei?" Ino asked.

"I'm trying to be nice, if you'd rather I worked you like my old ANBU squad, fine," Itachi said, not missing a beat. "You'll be training for a minimum of twelve hours a day and have a half hour break with food pills before I want you back for midnight drills."

"No! No, this is fine. I like this Itachi-sensei!" Ino cried her voice rising in fear, Shikamaru and Choji's expressions radiating the same horror.

"O-out of curiosity, what do midnight drills involve?"

"Choji, you're not serious?" Shikamaru shot, eyes wide.

"Running evacuation routes, 3 hour spars and depending on how my day's been, I'll set traps with varying levels of environment damage," Itachi informed, which didn't seem to ease his students' concern in any way, shape or form. "Relax," he tried with a smile, "I wouldn't do that to you three."

Their hesitation lingered but seemed to fade as Itachi went back to his work cleaning and patching up the scratches while Shikamaru flipped through the book of weapons. "What's the Sword of Kusanagi?" he asked, pausing at a page.

"Hm? Ah, it's a sword said to be able to cut through anything. It can also be controlled telepathically and change its length," Itachi explained.

"Real or fake?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "The site my research on it took me to was completely barren. I think someone must have gone there before me. But whether they found it or not, I can't be sure."

"Have you ever found anything?" Shikamaru asked, mumbling a thank you as Itachi finished with him and moved on to Choji.

"Some, but I'd have to kill you if I told you about them," Itachi said, his tone light.

"Could… you maybe not joke about murdering us?" Ino half-begged. Itachi tipped his head to the side, blinking owlishly. "Oh god you're not even joking about it are you."

"Ninja lead dangerous lives and trade in secrets. Don't be offended, some of the things I know can only be shared with the highest ranking officials. It's the same for your parents," Itachi smiled again. "I am sorry if I've frightened you though. I'll try to uh… 'not joke about murdering' any of you."

* * *

As May drew to a close, Team 10 met at the base of the Hokage Tower and ascended the stairs. Itachi had them arrive early to given them time to plan missions out and complete them with much of the day left to spare, but this time would probably be different.

"Ah, Team 10, greetings," the Hokage welcomed, smiling and waving his hand as the four ninja bowed to him. "I have a mission for you. A C-Rank, if you don't mind."

"R-really?" Choji startled.

"Yes!" Ino cheered softly, fist clenching in victory.

"What kinda mission is it?" Shikamaru asked, yawning slightly.

"I'd like you to go to Bakugakure and investigate a man by the name of Tachihara Kumo," the Hokage began. "Rumours are he's working with a group of bandits to disrupt Bakuhakure's Summer Festival. I'd like you to find him and if possible, the bandits."

"So we don't need to do anything about the attack on the festival?" Shikamaru asked.

"We don't know what kind of disruption it will be," the Hokage admitted. "If you discover that information as well and feed it back, we can assess it all at once. For the moment, the mission is reconnaissance only."

Itachi walked forward and took the mission scroll. "Is there a time frame on this mission?"

"Just as soon as possible. Though I would expect you back before the month's end."

"Why then?" asked Ino as they walked through the village, having been dismissed from the Hokage's office.

"Because Chuunin exam registration is by June thirtieth," Itachi supplied. "In general as well, it'll be three days travel to Bakugakure and three days back. So we should maximize our time in the village and get the information needed as quickly as possible."

"Urgh, three days? That's like forever," Choji whined.

"Recon missions often take a while I'm afraid. Go pack for a month and unless you want to live off food pills, bring food and money," Itachi ordered. "I'll meet you all at the gates no later than 3pm. Understood?"

A round of yes's answered him and the three pre-teens left to their various homes, and Itachi hopped onto the nearest roof to do the same.

He didn't mind recon missions, they were generally low-energy and his team was actually perfectly suited to this kind of situation. All he had to do was convince them to travel at a certain speed, since walking all the way to Bakugakure would take a week.

* * *

"Hey! Sensei, we're here!" Ino called, waving as she lead the group of three to the village gates. Behind her Choji and Shikamaru carried several bags.

"Hello. Uhm, why have you two got so many things?" Itachi asked, tipping his head to one side.

"More like why have you got nothing, Sensei!" Choji shot, jabbing a finger at Itachi, who didn't even have a backpack. "I'm not sharing!"

"One's mine, the rest are Choji's snacks," Shikamaru explained, dropping the bags on the floor. "Choji's right though – to say we've had hours to pack, you look like you didn't bother and just waited here."

"In a way," Itachi shrugged. "I'll explain when we set camp for the night. For now, let's sign out of the village and I'll help carry some of these. Can you all travel in the trees for a few hours?" Affirmative hums sounded as the four walked over to the gatekeepers and Itachi explained the rather simplistic system for leaving and entering the village. "We sign our names and the date here, and depending on how secretive the mission is, our reason for leaving."

"What do you write if the mission's a secret?"

"Whatever the mission scroll states your cover to be. In our case, it's fine to just write 'mission'," Itachi said, signing his name, smudging it slightly.

"You know, for a clever guy, you really struggle with a brush pen," Kotetsu mumbled, gesturing the others over. "You kids too, hurry up, and try to write better than your sensei."

Once they were all done and Choji's bags were gathered they headed off. Behind him, Itachi heard Kotetsu turn to the other guard, Izumo. "Come to think of it, ain't Shisui's writing sloppy too?"

"Yeah, sometimes I can't even read their names, it's awful. You think they'd use their Sharingan to copy someone who can write legibly," Izumo joked. "Seriously though. I'm glad I'm not the Hokage reading their mission reports."

Smiling a little, Itachi returned his attention to his students. "Alright you three, to the trees. I want to get to Bakugakure before I'm thirty."

"If we're still heading there in a decade it's only because Choji's bags are so fucking heavy!" Shikamaru shot.

Choji huffed, "Well, luckily for you guys I can jump and eat." As he spoke, a bag of some kind of snack was already being ripped open by Choji so he could begin eating.

"It's not even been two minutes and you're already stuffing your face?!" Ino squawked.

Itachi sighed. This was going to be a long journey.

* * *

Hours later, once the sun had set, Itachi finally gave them the cue to stop and make camp.

The three collapsed to the ground eagerly, their bags going everywhere. Itachi smiled gently, putting down the bags he'd carried. "You all rest for a moment, I'll get some firewood."

"Yup, sounds great," Ino mumbled with vague enthusiasm.

He had to hold back a chuckle as he went into the woods, knowing the three would be more than a little offended at him if he did. Several minutes later, he returned with arms laden with sticks to find that none of his students had moved an inch. Did I push them too hard? Itachi wondered.

"Are you all alright?" he asked, setting the sticks down and starting to make a fire pit.

"Hungry," confirmed Choji.

"My feet hurt," whined Ino.

"I'm just gonna sleep here, Sensei. Don't move me ever," said Shikamaru. Not one of them twitched as Itachi worked.

He weaved the signs for fireball jutsu swiftly and with only a small amount of chakra lit the firewood. "Well, if you want food, I'd suggest getting your own out, I'm a poor chef," he admitted, poking the fire with a spare stick to check the flames had properly taken before unclipping one of the scroll pockets on his flak jacket and removing the storage scroll within.

"Are you seriously working, Sensei? We were running all day," Shikamaru asked in disbelief as Itachi unrolled the scroll.

"Hmm? No," Itachi said, putting the scroll on the floor as the seal was revealed. "You asked me earlier where my pack was, remember? I stored it in this scroll." Placing a hand on the seal and activating it with a little chakra, a puff of smoke erupted and neatly atop the scroll seal was a backpack and a small metal container. Itachi pushed the container into the fire and put his pack to one side before rolling up the scroll and putting it away.

"Wait, what? That's a thing?" Ino asked sluggishly, sitting up and looking at Itachi's back as he pulled a bedroll out of it.

"What's in the box?" Choji asked, sniffing the air in confusion.

"Leftover ramen from the other night," Itachi replied. "I told you, I'm not great at cooking, now come on you three, beds out or you'll be sleeping in the dirt all night."

Choji's stomach growled. "Damn, hot food sounds nice. I've got onigiri."

"Same," responded Shikamaru and Ino, both pulling out bento boxes. Probably made by their mothers, Itachi thought, remembering how his own mother would make him lunches for long missions when he first started out as a ninja.

Shrugging, he assured, "Well eat away. If we keep this pace up it won't be much longer until we reach Bakugakure, then we can get lodging and eat out for dinner."

Ino shuffled closer to the fire, warming her hands and legs for a long moment before looking back to her pack and throwing a blanket around her shoulders. Soon they were all eating their dinner in silence until Itachi spoke up. "So what do you three know about keeping watch?"

"I know basically someone stays up while everyone else sleeps," Ino confirmed.

"Iruka-sensei told us there's often shifts when there's more than one person," added Choji.

Shikamaru poked his onigiri into some soy sauce. "Wait, you're not saying we have to bust our asses all day running and do watch shifts at night are you?"

"Of course," Itachi said, unphased. His team started to voice objections but stopped when Itachi raised a hand. "But since it's your first mission out of the village, I'll be nice. You each have to put effort into travel and each night, I'll do the majority of the watch, and leave the final two hours to one of you. That shouldn't be too bad, right?"

"That still sounds pretty crap," Shikamaru sighed.

"Dibs not first!" Ino shouted.

"Me neither!" hollered Choji.

Itachi smirked, "Well volunteered, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru's eye twitched. "Yay me," he said flatly.

His teammates laughed and Itachi allowed his smirk to widen a little. Team 10 certainly wasn't like his ANBU team, but it did remind him of his old Genin team.

Itachi's heart gave a lurch. Tenma…

He'd been little more than a child back then, but because he hadn't been fast enough, Tenma had lost his life. Itachi had sworn to himself then, that it wouldn't happen again. He wouldn't allow his teammates to die. He had the power to protect them now, and he would never let himself be that weak again.

* * *

Two days later as his watch neared its end, Itachi poked the fire back to life, rubbing his eyes tiredly. Doing the majority of the watch and running for hours during the day was taking its toll. He was only human after all, but then, he should be able to rest more easily in Bakugakure, sending the three off, perhaps with a Shadow Clone to keep an eye. Speaking of Shadow Clones…

He made the hand sign and a copy of himself appeared. "Walk on to Bakugakure and reserve some rooms in an inn, please?" he asked it, tossing over his wallet.

"Sure. I'll leave it in the room," the clone shrugged, yawning and turning in the direction of the village. It would take the clone anywhere between two and seven hours to get to the village as it didn't have enough chakra to Body Flicker to the village.

Still, it should be fine, Itachi thought to himself as he nudged Ino for her watch. "I've fed the fire some so you should be warm enough until morning."

Ino grumbled a little and rubbed her eyes as she rose from her bed. "Alright, thanks, Sensei. How many hours until we set off?"

"Four?" Itachi guessed, a hint of question in his tone. He'd prefer five, as it meant more sleep, but it also meant they would be travelling for longer than Itachi wanted.

"Alright, I'll wake you then," Ino yawned.

Settling down in his bedroll, Itachi fell asleep quickly, more of a testament to training and his exhaustion than a comment on how well the teen actually slept. Which was extremely lightly and generally not well. He heard each member of his team waking and talking over the course of an hour or so, though he refused to move or open his eyes in the hope he'd nod off again for a few more minutes.

"Do we have to get up?" Choji whined from somewhere to Itachi's left. "It's warm in here."

"Get up, fatty" Ino shot. "Sensei said we're almost there."

"Sensei's still in bed."

"Sensei doesn't eat breakfast and you eat like… three! So shut up!"

"How about you both can it?" Shikamaru interrupted. "If I can't sleep through you two arguing, like hell Sensei can."

Itachi imagined Ino and Choji flushing with embarrassment, as neither spoke for perhaps ten minutes after that, their chatter replaced with the occasional clang and rustle of the three trying to make themselves breakfast quietly.

Itachi hoped his clone got them separate rooms.


	6. Chapter 5: Preparation

"So this is Bakugakure?" Shikamaru asked as the village finally came into view.

It was smaller than Konoha by a fair margin, and surrounded by a wall of brightly decorated stones of varying colours and size. The people seemed happy enough and particularly welcoming of strangers, which was unusual, even for a tourist town.

"Oh wow! Your hair is so pretty!" a woman praised Ino as they passed. "If you ever need a cut, I know of a great salon!"

"O-oh, uh, thank you," Ino smiled, bowing a little and looking to Itachi for guidance.

"Ah, a bunch of growing young lads!" a man called from what Shikamaru guessed to be a ramen bar. "Why don't you pull up a stool and have some lunch?"

Choji took a step in the man's direction, only to be stopped by Itachi's hand on his shoulder.

"Perhaps later, we're just passing through at the moment," their sensei replied cordially.

"Suit yourselves, I'm open 'til late!"

Ino shuddered, wrapping her hands around her shoulders, "These people seem kinda creepy."

"Bakugakure isn't exactly poorly off, they could stand to be… less welcoming," Itachi agreed slowly.

"I don't think they're welcoming," Shikamaru frowned.

Choji's stomach growled. "Hopefully with these guys being so chatty the mission won't take long," he said as Itachi lead them to one of the village's inns.

"On the contrary, that might actually make it harder," he said, urging them up the stairs while the desk staff weren't looking. After breakfast, Itachi had explained he was only able to get a single room due to the upcoming festival, much of the rooms booked out by regular tourism or workmen doing odd-jobs around the village in preparation. As such they needed to be careful with coming and going from the inn.

"What makes you say that?" Choji wondered once they were safely hidden away in their room.

"If these people are so friendly to strangers, it's as much a danger as it is a boon," Itachi explained, taking his wallet from the bed and stowing it away. "Sure we might get a lot of information, but all it takes is one person blabbing to Tachihara that we're asking about him for the mission to fail."

"So how are we supposed to find out information about him without asking people?" Choji asked.

"You tell me, what do you think the best method is?" Itachi asked, his dark eyes scanning over all three Genin.

"Well, it'd be easier if we knew what he looked like," Shikamaru noted, eyebrows pulled together in thought.

"What do we actually know about Tachihara?" Ino frowned.

"Not a lot," Itachi admitted, removing the mission scroll and unravelling it on the bed for everyone to see. "We know his name, that he's been here for around two weeks, has a bad reputation and a speech impediment."

Choji frowned. "Speech impediment?"

Itachi hummed, "A stammer, or something to the effect usually. Sometimes a verbal tick like elongating s's or the overuse of the word like."

"That's… pretty vague," Ino hedged.

Itachi nodded. "It just means we have to be subtle about our interrogation."

"We could use Transformations?" Choji suggested. "If they don't know who we are, then Tachihara won't know Konoha ninja are asking about him, right?"

"It's a good idea, Choji," Itachi praised.

He didn't sound sold on it though, with Shikamaru saying as much. "But not the best one?" Itachi shrugged a shoulder. "Well, what would you recommend, oh wise Sensei?"

"Less of the sarcasm for a start," Itachi said flatly. "And I lean more on genjutsu than Transformation, but that doesn't mean Choji's idea was bad." He turned his attention to Ino. "How subtly do you think you can enter someone's mind?"

"Uh… well, the Mind Transfer isn't exactly subtle and I don't actually gain any intel just by transferring. So it's probably more of a last resort, or else taking control of an unconscious person?" Ino tentatively explained.

Itachi nodded. "Alright, that's doable." Shikamaru had the impression it had thrown a wrench in Itachi's plan and irritated their sensei, but since Itachi didn't outwardly complain, Shikamaru thought it best not to comment either.

"For now, we'll unpack, change into civilian gear and use minor Transformations to make ourselves look like strangers. Then we'll spread out, try find somewhere with locals and just listen," Itachi ordered. "Listen to conversations and recall as much as you can about the people here and their plans. We'll meet back here in the evening and feedback. Hopefully we'll have a list of people that might bump into Tachihara we can either tail, control or impersonate."

"Is it okay to go around unarmed?" Shikamaru wondered.

"Are you really unarmed? You all have taijutsu, genjutsu and ninjutsu at your disposal. All I'm asking is to leave your headbands and weapons behind."

"What about if room service finds us here?" Choji asked.

"I'm going to put genjutsu on the door," Itachi explained. "Anyone touching the door will forget why they needed to be there and leave. We'll be using the window," he added in response to the confused expressions of his students.

"Well, if that's all sorted, looks like there's only one thing left to discuss."

"Oh yeah? What's that Ino?" Shikamaru asked.

"Who gets the bed, duh!"

Shikamaru looked around the room. Ino was right, there was only one bed the room and while it was currently only occupied by a mission scroll, they'd all spent the last three nights sleeping on the floor. Cautiously, he met eyes with his teammates, seeing the same wary but determined expressions on Ino and Choji's faces. As one, they looked to Itachi, to see if he would challenge them. He looked as calm as ever. Bored almost.

Silence stretched between them.

"I'm going for a shower. If you're going to fight over the bed, I'll have it," Itachi began sternly. "If you can share, I'm fine on the floor and you three can rotate bed privileges." Without waiting for confirmation from his team, Itachi unsealed his bag from its scroll and disappeared into the adjoining bathroom.

Shikamaru frowned. The room wasn't big enough for all of them to sleep on the floor, but with one on the bed, they could manage. It would be a total drag though. Not to mention the room was generally sparse. One bedside table with a lamp on it, window opposite the door. Shikamaru assumed the bathroom would be equally mediocre and quietly hoped that it wasn't the kind of setup where the hot water could be used up, leaving Shikamaru, Choji and Ino to wash in frigid water.

"We go on the bed in the same order as we kept watch?" Shikamaru offered.

Ino's eye twitched, "So you get to go first?"

"Sensei said to pack for a month, you'll get your turn. We'll probably be here at least a week," Shikamaru reasoned.

"Keep your voices down," Choji warned, his eyes on the bathroom. "If Sensei hears us arguing he'll take the bed all for himself."

"Good point..." Ino frowned. "Rock, paper, scissors? Winner gets the bed tonight and the winner after that tomorrow? Loser goes last."

"Sure."

"That seems fair."

Itachi returned almost half an hour later accompanied by a swathe of steam, clad in grey trousers and a drab blue long sleeved shirt with a high collar, his long dark hair damp and loose around his elbows. He looked about to throw his pack on the bed but changed direction mid-swing and threw it into one corner instead. "Did you sort the sleeping arrangements out?" he asked.

"Yeah, Ino, me, then Choji," Shikamaru confirmed from his bed on the floor. He and Choji had also changed into plain clothes while Ino waited with her washbag, though she'd at least removed her headband and weapon pouches.

"I'm gonna clean up too," Ino said softly, getting up and slipping past Itachi into the bathroom.

Their sensei settled by his pack, dropping his towel on one leg so his hands were free to dig through his belongings.

"What're you looking for?" Choji asked, shifting for a better view of Itachi.

"Ink and a brush," Itachi replied. "I'm going to ward the window, and if you're all happy with it, I'd like to put a small seal on you all so you can come and go from the room without triggering the ward."

"Does the ward make a noise?"

"No, it's more like a feeling," Itachi paused, ink and brush in hand. "It's hard to describe, but it's similar to the feeling when you displace a genjutsu. It won't hurt," he added, obviously of the mind that's what Choji was fretting about.

"Oh…" Choji blinked. "I… guess that's okay then?"

Back to them, Itachi coated the window frame in sigils that Shikamaru didn't recognise while they waited for Ino. "Will you both be getting clean too?" he wondered.

"Later, I want dinner first," Choji argued.

Shikamaru nodded. "We don't smell that bad. No worse than regular teenagers anyway. Do we all have to eat separately?"

"No larger than pairs, but I would prefer alone, yes," Itachi agreed.

Ino reappeared soon after and Itachi re-explained what was happening while he drew the seal on Choji's upper arm, moving onto Shikamaru to do the same.

"So, these allow us to go around without being noticed?" Ino asked as Itachi moved to apply hers.

"People can still see you, so it's up to you all to find opportune times to enter and exit, but my ward won't be triggered," Itachi corrected. "The seal is better placed under clothing, in case your Transformation is cancelled," he added, waiting for Ino to offer him some skin.

She turned and pulled up her shirt, exposing her back. "How come you don't use genjutsu on the window as well?" she asked as he worked on her seal.

"I would if this was a higher ranked mission. As it is, I'm only taking these precautions because the people here are overly nosy and I could rather do without failing our first mission out of the village."

"Yeah, it probably wouldn't look good huh?" Shikamaru mused, stretching and grabbing his wallet. "Choji and I are gonna head out first and look for a place to eat. Later." Choji joined him and after glancing out the window, both waved a hand and were gone in a flash.

* * *

"So, where do you wanna head?" Choji asked as they walked the street, being as polite as they could to passersby who greeted them.

"Somewhere with a lot of people. We can wander through looking for seats and pick up info that way. If we can at least get a description of Tachihara or the location of somewhere he frequents that'll get things moving," Shikamaru replied, looking around as they walked.

"Then we also need somewhere the locals go too?"

"Maybe. It could also be worth just checking anywhere out though, maybe some of the contractors are bandits?" Shikamaru suggested. "And in general it's harder to overhear conversations when there are lots of people around, so our target should be where there's less chance of being overheard."

"Alright, but like… alleys in the dead of night are also a good place to exchange information," Choji pointed out.

"Only if you aren't spotted."

"I guess… Oh, hey, look," Choji pointed to a pack restaurant, Shikamaru humming in agreement. "Ew… it's a vegetarian joint."

"Suck it up, Choji, vegetables don't taste that bad."

"They don't fill you either! I can eat three bowls of salad and feel no fuller. Now, three bowls of chicken wings…"

Shikamaru sighed, "Choji…"

They went inside anyway and were assaulted by the smells of vegetables and fruit. Each plate they passed looked amazing and Shikamaru noticed more than a few burgers and fries. It wasn't traditional, but nothing about Bakugakure seemed traditional. All the buildings had bright lights, multiple levels and overbearing staff as they discovered when a young woman collared them while they looked around.

"You two don't have a table do you?"

"Ah, no, sorry, we were just looking for one," Choji replied, smiling gently.

"Well, I think we have one by the window. If you go back to the door and wait, I'll check for you," she insisted.

"Oh, no we don't want to be a bother," Shikamaru added.

"Not at all. I'll be right back, go on now," she shooed, Shikamaru and Choji relenting with sighs.

"Is this really okay, Shikamaru?" Choji mumbled as they walked back.

"I mean… I guess so? Just keep an ear out and we'll see." They passed the various tables, women and men talking amongst themselves or bidding the two ninja greetings as they passed.

"Nice weather we're having huh?"

"Oh you two are new? You should have the green bean salad – fresh _and_ local."

"T-thank you, I'll give it a try," Choji said, glaring as the woman who spoke added, "Slimming too."

Shikamaru put a firm hand on Choji's shoulder. "Chill it Choji. We're just here to enjoy dinner, right?"

"Yeah," Choji replied after a long moment, sagging as they continued their way.

They were eventually lead to a table by the waitress from before and sat down, gleaning very little along the way.

"I really don't think this is worth it," Choji hissed under his breath once their orders were taken. "These guys know nothing and talk about even less."

"You're just upset. We've been here less than ten minutes. Let's just give it a bit, Choji," Shikamaru soothed, leaning back and relaxing, his attention drifting to the family chatting idly behind him. They were talking on about very little, as Choji noted; the weather, what tasks they had to do at home, how the children shouldn't bother the builders at the town hall-

"Tachihara told you both you need to stop coming by, building sites are dangerous," the children's mother insisted, Shikamaru's ears twitching to attention.

"I wonder what's going on at the town hall?" he asked Choji, loud enough to be heard by the surrounding tables.

Choji tilted his head in confusion. "Dunno… I didn't even realise there was a town hall.."

"Oh yeah, it's in the middle of town," explained a man to their left, smiling warmly at them. "But it's under construction, ready for the festival. Ya see there was some structural instability in the base, so these kind builders are taking care of it."

"Builders?" Choji asked, "I mean, that's real nice of them, but doesn't that seem… a little dodgy?"

The man blinked. "Why do you think that? Strangers deserve our trust. They're all good people and assuming that they have ill-intent only breeds that ill-intent."

"I see…" Shikamaru said softly, smiling, "Sorry, we've been on our own a fair while. A rogue ninja killed our parents. Now we go around towns looking for work."

"Ah, how noble," the man praised. "I'm sorry about your parents, but if you need work, feel free to ask around, the builders might even have a spot for two kids, if you're good at running messages around?"

Shikamaru gave a happy chuckle. "Yeah, maybe. We'll be sure to ask tomorrow!"

Choji gave Shikamaru a curious look, but didn't comment and when their food came they ate mostly in silence before paying their bills and leaving, heading back to the hotel.

"Looks like we're first back," Choji noted, the room exactly how they'd left it. "How come you told those people we're orphans?" he asked Shikamaru who flopped down on the room's bed.

"You mean about the rogue ninja killing our parents? I wanted to see if that would make them think of the bandits that are supposed to be here, or remind them that not everyone has good intentions. What they're saying just… didn't sound right," Shikamaru reasoned, frowning.

"Yeah… it is fishy," Choji agreed. "But, maybe they are just stupidly nice people?"

"Stupid is definitely the word I would use," Itachi sighed from the windowsill, slipping in with Ino following quickly behind.

"Did you guys find anything out – wow!" Choji balked. Shikamaru looked over and his eyes blew wide. "Wh-what happened to your face, Sensei?"

Itachi looked less than pleased, a bruise blooming on his cheek. Ino, her hair the same black as Itachi's and eyes dark blue like Sasuke's sat beside Shikamaru on the bed before cancelling her Transformation. "Itachi-sensei and me pretended to be siblings, and a guy made a dirty remark about my butt, Sensei called them on it and he got in a fight with a bunch of builders."

"And lost?!" Shikamaru frowned.

"No. I knocked one of them out. The one who being rude about Ino," replied Itachi, flopping down on the floor.

"And then got your butt kicked by six guys."

Itachi shot Ino a dark look, "On _purpose_."

Choji and Shikamaru started laughing, the mental image of their ANBU ranked Sensei losing to normal people utterly hilarious. "Don't worry, Sensei, we won't tell anyone," Choji promised.

"Yeah, we won't break your fragile ninja pride," added Shikamaru with a grin.

Itachi's lip curled, though it didn't look insulting, in fact, Shikamaru reckoned Itachi was snickering. "Thanks. I hate all three of you," he said softly, not sounding like he meant it.

"Aw come on, Sensei. I thought you were really brave and chivalrous defending my honour," Ino smiled.

Itachi's lip twitched again as he rested his head in his hand, mindful of the bruise. "Well, all the same, we found out the builders are in league with Tachihara. They're probably the bandits. Though I think some of the group were townsfolk," he said, getting back to business.

"Yeah, we found out the same," Choji said. "They're working on the town hall."

"It's possible the disruption Lord Hokage is worried about is there," Shikamaru added.

Itachi nodded, "Possibly so. We'll have to investigate."

"Not that they'll want to see Ino or Itachi around there," mused Choji.

"Well, we'll just transform again," Ino reasoned. "It'll be fine. Or you two can go."

Itachi spoke up. "We'll go scout it out first. Under the cover of night when most people should be in their homes, that way we shouldn't be bothered."

"What about if the bandits or Tachihara are there?" asked Ino.

"Observe but don't engage. We don't want them to know we're here. For now though," Itachi said. "We'll head into the forest. If we're going to infiltrate a building I think it might be prudent to teach you all a new technique."

Shikamaru frowned. "New technique?"

Itachi nodded, pushing to his feet and turned to the wall, slowly walking up it until he met the ceiling, barely hesitating before stepping onto it and walking back towards his team, hair hanging down to the ground while the rest of him appeared comfortably supported.

The three's eyes widened, with Ino and Choji looking practically giddy.

"Yes! Dad's always doing that and kept saying I had to wait before he'd show me how to do it!" she exclaimed happily.

"Same, I got told I'd learn after graduating, but then he was usually out on missions," Choji agreed.

"Why can't we do it in here?" Shikamaru asked.

Dropping from the ceiling to the floor and sweeping his ponytail out of the way, Itachi shrugged a shoulder. "I haven't taught it to anyone before, but I got told generally it's better to do it in a forest. There's more ground to cushion your fall and some groups can be really noisy doing it."

"You mean you weren't?" Ino wondered.

"I have near perfect chakra control and I'm a fast learner. I could do it first try."

"But you don't think we can?" Shikamaru inferred.

"I don't know," Itachi replied, and it did seem in earnest. "But I do know what I can do isn't the general standard a lot of the time. So just this once, I'll listen to my senpai."

"Is that what the other Jonin were asking you about back then that time?" Choji asked. Itachi walked over and jabbed Choji in the forehead with two fingers. "Ow!" Choji balked, covering his head.

"You shouldn't be so nosy," their Sensei remarked, a slight pull of his lip and difference in tone displaying his amusement.

* * *

Relenting to their Sensei's wishes before the sun set, Team Ten followed Itachi into the woods, heading a couple of hours out of Bakugakure.

"We won't stay too long," Itachi said, stopping in a clearing. "I'll show you the jutsu again and you can all work out how it was done before trying yourselves. We'll go back to the hotel at ten pm."

Choosing a tree, Itachi walked up it slowly and dangled from a branch again, looking back to the group of Genin.

"Well… it's obviously related to chakra," Shikamaru started. "And since like, your shirt and hair aren't defying gravity, the chakra is focused on a particular point."

Itachi nodded, "Good. Where?"

"Your feet," Choji said. "It's like they're sticking to the tree."

"That… there must be more to it though," Ino frowned, pressing her hand to the bark of a tree. Leaning a little, Shikamaru could see her hand was coated in chakra and a little tug of Ino's arm showed that it was visibly stuck.

"A little, yes," Itachi said, his voice tinged with praise.

Choji joined Ino at a different tree, lifting his foot and testing chakra against the trunk. Shikamaru frowned and crouched, his fingers coming together and his eyes slipping shut.

"Oh, Shikamaru has his thinking face on-"

"Shut up, Ino!" Shikamaru snapped, frown deepening. He wanted to figure this out, and kind of wanted to do it first. Itachi was charging chakra to his feet to walk up the tree and defy gravity. Ino's hand, caked in chakra, stuck to the tree but didn't move.

"Ah!" Shikamaru startled as Choji cried out. "Choji! You okay?"

"M-my foot went through the bark!"

Getting up and going over to look, Ino coming too, they saw Choji's foot , very much buried into the tree.

"Well that's obviously not right," Ino chided.

"I fucking know that, Pig!"

"Fatass!"

"Don't start you two! Ino, help me get his leg out," Shikamaru cut in. Sighing, Ino did help support Choji's weight along with Shikamaru while Choji worked his foot free.

"Thanks," the boy mumbled.

"What happened?" Shikamaru pressed.

"I don't know, I was just charging chakra in my foot and it cracked the bark. I thought maybe that's just what happens and tried to step up. Bad idea, went into the tree."

Forming a theory, Shikamaru asked, "Did you use a lot of chakra?"

"Well. Yeah, I mean, it's gotta support our weight right? You can't just use a little."

Or maybe you could… Shikamaru ran off to Itachi's tree, which showed no signs of cracked bark and drew chakra to his hand then pressed it to the tree. It cracked as he pressed, so he lowered the amount of chakra until it just felt like it was stuck. Reaching higher, he used his other hand with a similar amount of chakra and pulled up his legs. He held.

"Wow! Shikamaru! You're doing it!" Choji cried with a grin.

Dropping back to the ground, Shikamaru tried it again with his feet, getting one stuck, then the other above it. He was vertical, great, but as his balance went and he careened towards the ground, Shikamaru realised only as far as his ankles had stuck to the tree. "Argh…" he grumbled, curling in on himself.

"That was a good attempt," Itachi's voice came from above, "What did you learn?"

"That you don't actually need much chakra. You only need enough to stick to the tree," Shikamaru said, slowly standing up again. "But balancing is awful. Only my foot was stuck."

Itachi hummed in affirmation, "If you take it at a run it might help, standing still horizontally is rather uncomfortable."

"How do you compensate for that?"

Itachi hopped back to the side of the tree and crouched. "The closer you are to the tree the easier it is to support yourself. Fully stood, you can use chakra to support yourself, but there's generally very little reason to stand straight when on a vertical surface."

"So you're just showing off?"

"I'm going slow. Sorry if that's the impression I'm giving."

Growling, Shikamaru took a couple of steps sideways, to avoid Itachi, then backed up and started to run at the tree. Chakra at his feet, Shikamaru made a whole two steps of progress, wobbled and had his arm caught by Itachi so that he wouldn't topple. "My feet… they aren't unsticking."

"Why would they? You're using your chakra to stick to the tree," Itachi replied simply.

"Are you shitting me? You have to gather it and ungather it for _each step_?! That's a total drag!"

"It gets easier the more you do it. Like a baby learning to walk for the first time."

Shikamaru groaned. Using Itachi's arm to help him to balance, he wobbled up the side of the tree, not unlike a toddler, slipping and jerking as his chakra levels weren't quite right. Still, in the end he did make it up to the same branch Itachi had been on.

"Want to go upside down?" his Sensei asked.

"Hell no. Let go, I'm jumping down," Shikamaru replied. Crouching once he was released, Shikamaru sprang from the tree, flipping to land on his feet. He looked to his teammates who were still struggling. This was going to take a while.

* * *

In the end, it took them a couple of days to properly work out the tree climbing technique and a couple more to properly master it. They weren't experts, but they could climb and dangle and jump through the trees with only minimal wobbling and no damage as Itachi insisted it was better to use less chakra than too much, especially in stealth operations.

As evening finally gave way to night on the end of their first week in Bakugakure, Team Ten laid out their plan. Choji, Shikamaru and Ino would do the main bulk of scouting while Itachi hung back, keeping in touch via comms and surveying the town hall from one of the taller buildings, so he could see if anyone was approaching.

They had forgone disguises for this portion, though Itachi had warned that they may need to run or Transform at a moment's notice.

" _Alright, I'm in position, are you three ready?_ " Itachi's calm voice came over the comms.

Ino hummed, " _West side looks clear._ "

" _East is good too,_ " added Choji. " _There's some scaffolding this side._ "

"Yeah, the south is good too," Shikamaru responded.

" _Be careful around there, Choji. We don't know how real those construction claims are_ ," Itachi warned. Choji hummed an affirmative and after a moment, in which Shikamaru assumed Itachi was double checking his area, their Sensei called, " _Okay, go!_ "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Re: the situation with Ino's butt.  
> I envisioned it as a teenager somewhere between Ino and Itachi's age and in the very first iteration of this idea, it was going to be Tachihara himself, who is currently 16. Because 16 is older than Ino's 13 and barely younger than Itachi's 17, they both say 'guy', but they do mean a person of a similar age to them.


	7. Chapter 6: Investigation

Choji frowned as he fumbled on the scaffolding. He wasn't sure what they were supposed to be looking for, and that made him hesitate about where he should start searching. Itachi had told them to explore all the levels of the town hall. Thankfully there were only three, but that still left him with which one to begin with.

"Start at the bottom I guess," Choji mumbled to himself, finding a gap in the wall that he assumed was part of the repairs and slipped through into the ground floor.

Bakugakure's town hall seemed to be part museum. Looking around Choji saw signs on the wall explaining the history of the town and animals found in the wild there. What he assumed to be displays were covered with large dust sheets to protect them, but just looked creepy in the dark.

Reluctantly he checked under each cover finding little of interest beyond taxidermy of various animals, which looked even more unsettling in the shadows.

"This place is weird," he complained over the comms, moving on to the next room.

" _It's not that bad. This office is a mismanaged mess though_ ," Ino commented. " _It'll take me a while to sort through this stuff_."

"You think evil bandit stuff will be in the filing cabinet?"

" _Well, where are you looking_?!" shot Ino.

"Well, before I was in some weird stuffed animal display, the next room looks like where the building work is actually taking place, there's a big hole in the ground and materials… hmmm."

" _What have you found, Choji_?" asked Shikamaru.

"A second hole, a ways from the first. It was hidden by a sheet and some building materials," he said, moving things out of the way. "It's smaller. Definitely meant for one person, not a crew of builders."

" _Can you see where it leads to_?" Itachi asked.

Choji shook his head, then remembering his team couldn't see said, "No, it looks like it goes under the building, but I can't see too far, it's pitch black."

There were soft hums on the comms from Itachi and Shikamaru as they thought over what Choji had told them. " _Scout it out, Choji. If you can't find the end in five minutes, backtrack and we'll go down as a group_ ," Itachi decided.

" _Yeah, it sounds dodgy, but we've got this entire building to check. Can't waste time on a red herring_ ," Shikamaru agreed. " _Keep us posted if you find anything_."

"Alright," Choji nodded and headed into the hole, thankful there was enough room for him to slip inside.

The hole was by no means smooth, but a couple of firm thumps on the wall and ceiling had Choji convinced it would hold as he traversed slowly, pulling a torch out to light the way. As far as Choji could tell, it was made for someone taller than him, as the roof of the passageway was a good two heads above him, but that didn't give him any information on who or why.

Thankfully though the route did eventually end in wider space filled with mounds of what looked like wet dirt at first glance. Going over to investigate, Choji sighed. He thought he'd found something interesting but the walk down here was totally pointless. "It's a dud. There's nothing down here but a few piles of… huh, clay," he said, one hand on the comms and the other rubbing some of the clay between his fingers. Looking around, Choji tried to see if there was anything, _anything_ that justified this stupid hole.

His comms crackled horribly and Shikamaru's disjointed voice came out as mostly static. "' _D say? Cho-_ "

"Damn. Signal must be being blocked by the concrete," Choji mumbled to himself. "Odd though, I could hear everyone just fine before and Itachi-sensei's outside…"

The comms continued to crackle as his team spoke, causing Choji to wince and turn the volume down a bit. He'd just head back and turn it up once he was on the main floor. No problem.

Choji tensed as footsteps sounded on the passage behind him.

* * *

Shikamaru sighed. He wasn't having much luck either. The top floor was split into two large rooms, one a lecture theatre, complete with lecterns and shaped to carry the voice of the speaker all the way to the top row. The second was a wide open hall Shikamaru assumed was for a small market fair or something similar, as he could see faint marks and numbers painted onto the floor and a number of poles and wooden planks to one side of the room.

The lectern had a locked drawer that soon gave way to Shikamaru's ministrations with a hairpin, but also revealed very little in the way of use. "There's nothing here, I'm gonna head to Choji. This floor's a total waste," he informed the team, locking the drawer on the lectern and making sure everything was as he'd found it before heading for the stairs.

" _'T's a 'd. There's… few… hay_ ," Choji's voice crackled.

"What'd you say, Choji?" He paused and put his hand to his ear, listening intently to the comms, but Choji didn't repeat himself. "Did anyone get that?"

" _No, sounded like he was planning a nap_ ," Ino huffed, papers still shuffling her end.

" _Choji? Are you there?_ " Itachi asked softly. When Choji still hadn't replied, their Sensei spoke up again. " _Something down there must be jamming the signal._ "

"Like magnets or something?" Shikamaru wondered, continuing his way down to the lower levels.

" _Possibly. I'd wager it's not the building itself since I can hear you two just fine, and the foundations shouldn't be thick enough to effect the comms_ ," Itachi replied with a thoughtful hum. " _How far are you from Choji's position, Shikamaru_?"

"Nearly there, I've just reached the bottom floor."

" _Good_. _Ino, keep searching, Shikamaru, bring Choji back up._ "

Ino hummed an affirmation and Shikamaru mumbled a "Got it."

* * *

" _Do you think there's anything of use in the building_?" Ino asked over the comms.

"I'm not sure. I'd wager if there was anything there, it would be in the underground space with Choji," Itachi replied. "If the signal is being blocked, there must be a reason for it."

" _What kind of things could block the signal_?" Ino wondered.

Itachi had the distinct impression she was bored, or at least hiding any nervousness under a blanket of boredom. Not that he could blame her. Something wasn't quite right, and Itachi had yet to put his finger on it. "A few things. Distance being a main one. Chakra can also effect it."

" _Chakra? How_?"

"If it's moulded into a thick enough density, chakra can create a barrier that messes with electrical signals," Itachi explained.

Ino's tone betrayed her concern. " _Could… that happen here? If Tachihara's a ninja…_ "

"It's a possibility, but my Sharingan can't see through walls, so I'd have to be there to know for sure," he admitted. "As to whether Tachihara could be a ninja, it's a possibility but with the mission ranking, our intel would have be severely out-dated for him to be more capable than a Chunin."

" _So what you're saying is not to worry because we can take him_?"

Itachi smiled, "Pretty much. Everything should be fine. Still. It doesn't hurt to be cautious. We'll wait for Choji and Shikamaru to come back into contact before leaving and return to scouting in the morning."

" _… Here… Guys there's someone else down here_!"

Itachi startled. "Shikamaru?!" But how? No one had approached the building. He'd seen no chakras anywhere in the vicinity…

Letting out a low growl, Itachi made a hand sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" A puff of smoke erupted and then beside him, a copy of himself appeared. "There must be another entrance tunnelled into the town hall. Shikamaru, did you get a look at the other person?"

" _No, they were already in the tunnel when I got there. I'm going back in to support Choji_!" Shikamaru reported at the same time Choji's voice crackled over the comms, sounding surprisingly calm.

" _Ah… Ino… 'ry… lost… time._ "

" _Ch-Choji! I'm not down there!"_ Ino yelled.

"Damn it!" Itachi growled, he and his clone rushing towards the building.

* * *

Choji turned at the sound of footsteps, body tense. "H-hello?" He shifted his torch to the entrance as the newcomer arrived, light shining straight in the person's eyes. Long blonde hair tied up in a ponytail flashed and Choji relaxed. "Ah, it's just you, Ino. You scared me. Sorry, I must have lost track of time."

"Who the fuck is Ino, un?" A gruff voice shot back, startling Choji, "And get that fucking light out of my eyes you little shit, un!"

At the same time, Choji could just make the crackling of his comms. " _Ch'ji? 'M not…_ " That was Ino's voice and as Choji shifted the light, he could only gawk at the figure – man – in front of him. He wasn't Ino at all, but at first glance, could be mistaken for her. Though now Choji was looking their hairstyles were different, the fringes falling over opposite eyes, which, while blue like Ino's weren't the same bright blue that smiled and radiated excitement. These eyes burned dark with anger and danger. The ninja's headband was also different, displaying the symbol for Iwagakure, not Choji also noticed the guy was wearing a teal yukata and pants, while Ino had come out in her usual purple shirt and skirt. Ino would probably kill him for the mix-up if he survived this encounter.

"Wh-who are you?"

"That's my question for you, you leaf village scum, un!" the man shot back. He looked about Itachi's age, but had none of the older teen's calm demeanour. And the odd way he ended his sentences… it was like some kind of tick or…

Choji jabbed a finger at him, "Speech impediment! You're Tachihara!"

The blonde glared at him. "The hell do you think you are, un? Pointing out someone's way of talkin' like it's a crime, un!" He put a hand in the bag at his hip and Choji reached for his kunai pouch, expecting a weapon from the strange ninja.

Instead, Tachihara threw his hand out – a hand that had a _mouth_ in the palm – and a beige centipede flew towards him. A burst of smoke coupled with a hand sign from Tachihara and the centipede became huge and wrapped its way around Choji's right arm. "Wah!" Choji cried in surprise, staring at the creature in horror.

"I wouldn't touch that if I were you," he warned as Choji raised his other hand to pull the sculpture off. "My clay is highly volatile - extremely explosive to spell it out for you, un. After all, the most beautiful art is the fleeting kind, un! It's a blast!" Tachihara yelled with a smile only to stiffen, hand halfway to making a seal, his face falling as he twitched, trying to look behind him.

"Ch-Choji, are you okay?" Shikamaru asked, his voice strained.

Choji lit up with hope, "Shikamaru! Boy am I glad to see you!"

"Just hurry up and get over here! This guy, he's fighting the Shadow Possession," Shikamaru grunted.

Tachihara growled, his movements getting stronger. "I'm gonna throttle both of you, but not before I blow this village sky high, un!"

Footsteps thudded higher up in the tunnel and Choji could make out Shikamaru trembling as he fought to keep his jutsu active.

"Choji! Shikamaru!"

"Itachi-sensei!"

Itachi leapt past Shikamaru just as Tachihara wrenched himself free, the blonde whirling to face Itachi only to stop dead as he met Itachi's Sharingan. "Beautiful…" the man mumbled to himself staring into the red orbs. Exactly what Itachi had always told his team never to do.

"Wh-what did you do to me, un?!" the bomber grunted, elbows locking against his sides as if he were trapped by something. He looked to Choji. Or more specifically, the centipede on his arm. "No, you shouldn't be able to control my creations, un!" He thrashed while Itachi made to move past him. "Katsu!"

"ARGHHH!"

"CHOJI!" Shikamaru and Itachi cried over the boy's shriek of pain as the clay centipede on his arm exploded, along with the other clay piles in the room. Shutting his eyes against the light and pain, Choji didn't see who grabbed him, only felt as he was carried away outside, the cool night air seeming to increase the burning of his arm.

He felt sick, his ears were ringing and the pain was like nothing he'd ever felt before, somehow even breathing seemed to hurt right now. Above him – when had he laid down? – voices called his name.

"Choji? Choji can you hear me?"

"Choji! Oh my god! What happened to his arm?"

"Look after Choji, that ninja isn't finished."

"N-ninja? Ah – wait! Is he flying!?"

The flow of conversation was making little sense, and so against his better instincts, which said he'd be better off napping, Choji opened his eyes. "Tachihara is… flying?" he mumbled, blinking harshly as his vision swam.

"Choji! You're alive!" Ino smiled, looking about ready to burst into tears.

"It's another of those clay things he made earlier," Shikamaru explained.

Before Choji could ask any more questions, Itachi cut in. "You three retreat. Get Choji back to the hotel and dunk his arm in cold water. That burn needs tending."

"What about you?" Shikamaru asked, looking up to their Sensei.

"Speech impediment, clay sculptures and explosions, no doubt," Itachi said his gaze on the sky above them. "He's an S-Rank missing nin from Iwagakure. Deidara."

"But… isn't he Tachihara?" Choji grunted, trying to sit up. Ino pushed him back down.

"It doesn't really matter either way at this point. I can't allow him to blow up the village." Itachi crouched low then disappeared in a flash, the only indication of him still being in the area was the sounds of many small explosions and the Iwa ninja shouting "Katsu!" and "Die you red-eyed fucker!".

* * *

No! It was happening again! Itachi grit his teeth, shuriken flying from his fingers at high speed. These… creations, his Sharingan showed they were infused with chakra, and they exploded on contact with his weapons, or at Deidara's command. His team was in danger again, but this time, Itachi swore none of those children would die! This time, he had the power to do something about it.

His Sharingan burned in the night, allowing him to keep on top of the clay bombs, but he couldn't get close to Deidara and the other ninja had pulled up high into the sky, giving him lots of distance with which to make bombs and keep Itachi at bay.

"Let's see you trap me in genjutsu this time, asshole, un!" Deidara yelled with mirth. "Now how about some super fast fliers, un!" From the smoke erupted two long thin birds with four wings. They flapped hard and fast. Too fast. Itachi span to the side, flinging shuriken after the first bird to keep them from his team, barely dodging the second bird only for a bunch of clay spiders to catch him from behind, exploding with a loud "Katsu!" from Deidara.

"Baaaargh!" Itachi grunted as he was thrown to the ground. No time for lying about though, as another round of tiny clay creatures came after him. "Damn it, you three! Get out of here!" he yelled at his Genin that _still weren't gone yet_. "That's an order!"

Raising his arms to protect his eyes against the explosions as they detonated, Itachi groaned, clutching his shoulder. Deidara's attacks were fast and calculated, changing the sizes and amount of chakra in the creatures so that even the small ones could be deadly. One of the spiders had managed to get onto his shoulder before it blew up, and though barely a few centimetres in size, blood clung to his fingers and stained his Jonin vest from the explosion.

The injuries had nothing on Choji though, whom he'd been unable to reach in time, too caught off guard by Deidara's certainty in his own power and fiercely reckless decision to blow up all of the clay in that underground cavern. The town hall was half-destroyed, his clone had been dissipated in the blast protecting Shikamaru and it really didn't seem like Deidara was running out of clay soon. All Itachi could hope was that none of the idiotic villagers tried to approach this place to add to the chaos.

* * *

"Come on, Choji," Shikamaru urged, helping the other boy to sit up. Choji whimpered as his arm was jarred and grimaced as he looked at the bloody mess. The bandages that usually covered his body were burned away, leaving the skin below broken, blistered and bloody. Fibres from his clothes were getting into the wounds and every movement flared the pain like a forest fire.

"This guy won't quit," Ino grimaced, letting off a flurry of her own shuriken to try keep a flurry of clay grasshoppers at bay while they got Choji moving. "The smaller ones are almost worse! I can barely see them!"

"Damn it, you three! Get out of here!" Itachi yelled over the explosions. "That's an order!"

Choji wobbled to his feet. "We need to protect this village."

"Choji, are you insane?!" Shikamaru shot. "Our orders are to fall back!"

"And anyway, what can you do? Your arm's in shreds!" Ino added.

Choji forced a grin, "What? This little scratch? It barely stings. Come on, let's help Itachi-sensei."

Ino balked, turning to face her teammate with wide eyes, "B-but…"

"If we don't stop this guy now, the whole village is in trouble, and those idiotic villagers will blame Konoha. I'm not letting that happen, so Tachi-dara goes down here!"

"Tachi-dara?" Shikamaru scoffed, standing up too. "That name's so dumb, those explosions must have muddled your brains."

"Are you seriously thinking this is okay?" Ino frowned, looking between her two comrades. Choji looked pale and ready to pass out at any moment, and Shikamaru was probably minutes away from going into shock. "We should just evacuate the village."

"Choji's right, those idiot villagers won't be happy if we leave it as is." Shikamaru looked to the sky, where he could just about make out the giant owl Deidara was riding. "That guy's staying way of Itachi-sensei's genjutsu range and the fact he can keep us so well back must mean he's a long-range fighter. If we can close the distance or at least distract him, it might give Itachi-sensei an opening."

"So we're banking on him being crap at close-range? That's not even the framework for a solid plan."

Shikamaru let loose a barrage of kunai, explosions lighting up the woods as Deidara's art detonated prematurely. "Either way, we need to move now."

Choji smiled for real this time. "I've even got a plan to get you two up there, so you better not mess it up."

Following Choji up onto the roof of what was left of the town hall, Choji didn't actually explain anything as he slowly worked his hands into the seals for his Human Boulder jutsu injured arm giving him grief as he moved his fingers and wrist. "Let's go!"

"Ah, Choji, wait!" Ino tried, "He'll just blow you away if you attack head on like this."

"Yeah, I know," Choji smiled. "But you two skinny-asses can't take the heat, so just use me as a boost okay? Time to show Itachi-sensei our InoShikaCho formation! Human Boulder!" Choji roared as he soared forward, torso expanding. His arms and limbs came inside the ball as he rotated, forcing himself to spin as hard as he could. Bombs exploded against his body and soon the force of the blasts forced his momentum to cease and fall back to the ground.

"C-Choji!" Itachi balked, staring at the young man willing throwing himself back into the firing line.

"Go guys! There's your opening!" At Choji's cry, Ino and Shikamaru leapt into the air, landing briefly on Choji.

"Are you sure this is okay?" Shikamaru asked Choji softly.

"It's fine. Just get that guy and rip him a new one."

"Got it. Let's go, Ino."

"Right." The two sprang up, sending Choji flying to the ground as his jutsu cancelled. Warm arms looped around Choji.

"You… _crazy_ _idiots_! Are you trying to get yourselves killed?" Itachi demanded, landing on the ground safely with Choji, lowering the injured boy to the grass and looking up in search of Ino and Shikamaru. They'd made it onto the owl and were trying to fight Deidara, but it seemed the man was just as capable of handling those two up close as he was at keeping Itachi at a distance.

"Damn it, stay still!" Ino yelled at Deidara as he weaved and dodged her punches. "I'm gonna get you back for blowing up Choji!"

Shikamaru weaved in time to her blows, moving to deal his own to Deidara in gaps. But even with their teamwork, Deidara was still able to escape, ducking out of the way and jumping off of his owl.

"Look if you guys want that perch so much, have it, un! Katsu!" He made a hand sign and the bird began to swell.

"What? This one too?!" Shikamaru growled, trying to leap away.

"Do they all explode?" Ino demanded, shielding her face as she jumped, the explosion sending them hurtling in different directions. "Shikamaru! Get your butt over here!"

Turning in mid-air Shikamaru saw Ino's hands shift to the final sign of her Mind Transfer jutsu. He twisted and rebounded off of one of the trees at the back of the town hall, back towards the roof. Landing, he weaved his own hand signs as he rolled, shadow shooting out in the moonlight to latch onto Ino's. "Did you get him, Ino?"

Explosions answered and Shikamaru could only assume she had missed as he Deidara made himself a new bird to fly above them on and Ino wasn't shouting in answer.

* * *

Down on the ground, Itachi checked on the new burns Choji had received. "Foolish boy, you should have left like I said." There wasn't much to be done now, but Choji would be lucky to only get away with a handful of scars. Choji twitched, unable to say a word so for how tightly he was clenching his jaw. Itachi sighed, taking quick assessment of how Ino and Shikamaru were doing before looking back to Choji. "Look at me. I can put you in a genjutsu to help with the pain, but you need to stop being so reckless," he said, running his hands through signs he hadn't needed to use in several years.

Once Choji met his gaze he let the jutsu flow, carefully dulling the pain centre in Choji's brain, watching as the boy visibly relaxed. "There. I won't take all of the discomfort away. If you forget that you're injured you could risk hurting yourself more."

Choji winced and slowly eased himself up. His team were reckless and apparently didn't follow orders, but still. He admired their tenacity, smiling reassuringly as Choji got his feet under him, looking resolutely to the bird in the sky. "Not giving up?"

"Hell no! I'm not letting those two go it alone. Just like we won't leave you to fight this guy alone," Choji barked, first clenched in determination.

Itachi smiled a little wider. "Well in that case, might I take over the planning? That horrific idea where you got assaulted by clay bombs has your signature all over it."

A snicker sounded over the comms, " _Yeah, that plan was Choji's_ ," came Shikamaru's lazy drawl, a somewhat strained tone edging his voice, accompanied by explosions. " _Ino failed her Mind Transfer, I'm looking after her body 'til she comes back, but I could use support up here_."

"I'm on it," Itachi replied weaving hands signs once more. "Fire Style: Fireball jutsu!" The night sky lit up as fire flew from Itachi's lips, curling itself into a massive ball, consuming the clay bombs in it's path towards Deidara. "Shikamaru, that building is too unstable, bring yourself and Ino down," he ordered as Deidara re-positioned himself to avoid Itachi's attack.

"Can't you just take him down with your fireballs?" Choji asked.

Itachi shook his head. "They're too slow and use up a lot of chakra. Against a foe who can move around quickly they're only useful as distractions. And even then, Deidara is smart. They won't keep him occupied for long."

Shikamaru and Ino landed beside them with a heavy thud, the former looking pretty tired. "Are you alright Shikamaru?" Itachi asked, noticing the boy's heavy breathing and sweat. Beside him Ino twitched and let out a soft groan.

"Better now," Shikamaru sighed, releasing his Shadow Possession. "You got bumped a couple of times, sorry, Ino, best I could do."

Ino smiled thinly, "It's fine. Thanks for looking after me." She stretched her body slowly, eyes on Deidara in the sky as he circled him on his bird. "How are you doing, Choji?"

"Sensei used a genjutsu, so I'll be fine for now. But It's probably not a good idea to draw this out."

"I concur," nodded Itachi. " The villagers of Bakugakure won't stay away forever. Ino, did you get inside him at all or miss entirely?"

"I missed, but I don't think he realised what I was trying to do," Ino reported.

"Alright, in that case we need to get around the next wave of bombs and engage him on his bird once more." Assents met his order, but Itachi froze as what he expected to be another swarm of small clay animals turned out to be something very different.

"My mission was just to blow up the town hall and cause some terror among the villagers, un," Deidara's voice came down to them as a single, densely chakra filled clay creature fell from his hands. Ino raised a kunai to flick at it and Itachi barely grabbed her arm to halt her in time. He was about to explain when Deidara expanded the clay figure, leaving it standing taller than any of Bakugakure's buildings. "This thing has enough chakra in it to blow _the entire village_ sky high, un! I call it C-3, un!"

"Wh-what?!" Shikamaru trembled, looking up at the crude humanoid clay model. It was less detailed than the others before it, and Itachi wondered if that was because Deidara had put utility over beauty. Not that it mattered.

"He's not lying, that thing has a huge amount of chakra. Ah, Ino-" The girl fell slack against him. Fainted? He lowered her to the ground, though didn't take his arms from around her as he racked his brain for a plan. How the hell were they supposed to disable that thing?!

Above, Deidara's laugher rang down. "Now, time for you all to see the beauty of my fleeting art, un! Ka-ah?!" The man grunted and Itachi narrowed his eyes. What was that? "Itachi-sensei!" Deidara cried suddenly, startling the group. "Hurry! Get this thing out of here somehow, I can't hold him back for long. His mind's really strong!"

"Ino?!" Choji cried in confusion, cranking his head up. "How did you? When?"

"No time for that, take the east and west sides, both of you and summon as much chakra as you can. I'll tell you what hand signs to make," Itachi snapped, leaving Ino's body behind and racing forwards.

Complying with their Sensei, it was another moment before Shikamaru and Choji were in place, time Itachi spent ordering Ino. "Hold on as long as you can, we need this thing as high as possible before it explodes. Once I give the word, cancel your jutsu and throw a kunai at the bomb, coat your hand in chakra before you throw it to increase the kunai's speed." He didn't want Deidara altering the bomb in anyway or detonating it prematurely.

"Hai!" Ino grunted. Itachi swallowed, praying she could hold out.

"Ready, Sensei!" came Choji's voice, bringing Itachi back to his own task.

"I, Inu, Tori, Tatsu, Uma, Hitsuji, Mi!" Weaving different signs from the ones he was dictating, and at a much faster speed, Itachi thrust his boar seal into the ground, loosening it and hopefully cushioning the blow they were about to deal the bomb enough not to triggerit. Summoning all of his remaining chakra, he ran through the seals he'd yelled at the boys. "Now slam your hands to the ground! Earth Style: Heavenly Pillar!" He could feel the chakra more than see it as all of his reserves went into the technique, deactivating his Sharingan in the process. A giant pillar of earth rose up under the C-3 and sent it hurtling towards the sky. Counting the seconds until it would clear Bakugakure's air space, Itachi called out at the earliest possible moment, "Ino! Now!"

The explosion that rocked the air was massive, causing a huge gust of wind to tear through the area, knocking Itachi to the ground. One long, tense second passed. Then another. His throat hurt from shouting and his limbs were on fire from the burn of using up all of his chakra, but Itachi forced himself to righten, coughing roughly as he looked around for any signs of Deidara. Nothing. The area was eerily calm. Or perhaps the explosion had deafened him.

Either way, it seemed they had won that round. Deidara couldn't be seen or heard, which was just as well, because Itachi had nothing left to give if the man had tried to continue the fight. He slumped back down on the ground and relaxed, not wanting to think of the repercussions or meanings of anything right now.


	8. Chapter 7: Return

The morning after was hell. All four of them were sore, irritated and dealing with the extra lethargy of using too much chakra the other day. Still, reports had to be made, particularly in the case of enemy ninja still at large in their boarders, so Itachi reluctantly bit his thumb and weaved hand signs for a summon.

A puff of smoke erupted in their cramped hotel room, drawing the attention of his tired Genin.

"Huh? A crow…" Ino mused from her bedroll, curled up inside it like a cocoon.

Shikamaru looked over from the bed, where he was helping Choji open a bag of crisps. "That was an animal summon right? So, you've made a contract with crows?"

"I'm sure Iruka-sensei will be pleased to know you paid so much attention in class," Itachi nodded, turning to the bird. "Kohaku, I need you to relay a message to the Hokage."

"Sure, 'Tachi. What's the message?" Kohaku chirped back, causing the children to stare more.

"There was a complication on the mission. Deidara of Iwa made contact and escaped. I still believe him to be in Hi no Kuni."

The crow tipped his head to the side. "That it?"

Itachi gave a small smile. "If he asks whether we'd like to retreat, I would very much like that."

Kohaku let out a caw that might have passed for a laugh. "Yeah you guys look like you got in quite the scrap. I haven't seen you so beat up in a while, 'Tachi."

Itachi blushed a little while his team scoffed. "Yes, well… Go on," he mumbled, gesturing to the open window.

Kohaku hopped up on the windowsill and turned his head to the children. "And what about you three? I can drop by your homes on my circle back. No offense, but 'Tachi doesn't seem in a rush."

"So long as the Hokage is spoken to first, I'm not," Itachi agreed tiredly, looking in his pack for his first aid kit. He'd patched up the worst of their injuries last night, but he'd woken to his bedroll stained with puss and blood, which meant he'd either misplaced some bandages, knocked them off in sleep or bled through. None of which were fun options, especially as they still had the trip home to do. With all its outdoor camping.

Being an Uchiha, burns were a common injury his family dealt with; as such Itachi carried balms and was able to diagnose the severity rather easily. Itachi had done what he could, and though Choji could still move his arm, Itachi worried about the blisters and deep tissue damage, knowing the burns weren't just surface deep, and if he'd actually treated Choji correctly since he clearly hadn't cared for his own injuries properly.

"Nah, if we're going back soon, there's no need to worry my parents about anything," Shikamaru said, Ino relaying much the same. Choji shifted in the bed a little in debate before also shaking his head.

"Nah, I don't want my folks freaking out. I'll talk to them in the village."

"Suit yourselves," Kohaku shrugged, flapping his wings and jumping out into the mid-morning light. Once he was gone and Itachi had located his bandages, he took care of himself before pushing to his feet and double checking Choji's injury.

"How are you feeling, Choji?" Itachi asked as he gingerly turned Choji's arm to examine the bandages.

"It's fine," Choji said. "It doesn't hurt much."

"That could be lingering effects from the genjutsu," Itachi argued. "I still want you to get it checked at the hospital."

"Urgh, fine."

"It's a strong technique, and you probably haven't been exposed to that much genjutsu," Itachi continued on. "I'm serious, Choji. The mind is a delicate thing; I was playing with your receptive ability, something you need for a solid career as a shinobi. And while I'm fairly confident in my abilities, I don't often use genjutsu on my comrades. I'm certainly no trained healer, everything I know is battlefield first aid."

"That's still training," Ino argued.

"Training to keep your insides inside long enough to get to a hospital," Itachi replied. "It's not long term. Your burns and your brain. Get them both checked."

"What about your injuries?" Shikamaru wondered. "You got beat up pretty badly too."

"I have reports to file first, but I'll get there eventually," Itachi nodded.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes, "Talk about a hypocrite. What was that about making us go to the hospital straight away?"

"They'll put my arm in a sling and keep me overnight," Itachi argued, flapping his good arm. "Writing reports is a pain most of the time, but worse like that. I'm sure the nurses go out of their way to inconvenience ninja."

Ino chuckled. "Maybe they strap you up like that so you guys have to take it easy and heal."

Itachi shrugged the comment off while his team chuckled. She was probably right, but he would never admit it.

Blessedly Kohaku returned after noon to the room of tired ninja and informed them the Hokage was issuing orders to retreat. They packed up and made their way back to Konoha at a much steadier pace than they left.

* * *

Once Konoha's gates were in sight, Itachi spoke up, cutting through the relieved cheers the three Genin were making. "Going back to taking it easy, training is cancelled until Sunday. We'll assess how your injuries are doing and ease into routine again."

Choji punched the air victoriously. "Yeah-ah ow! Ow!" he whimpered, cringing and clutching his arm.

"Yeah, looks like a rest is definitely on the cards," Ino chuckled. Shikamaru patted Choji gently on the back.

"You three go check in at the hospital, I'll go to Lord Hokage and send your pay later."

"I don't suppose we get a raise for dealing with dangerous criminals?" Shikamaru asked.

Itachi gave him a sympathetic look, "I doubt it. But you get bragging rights for not being dead."

"Yeah, that's not gonna cut it," Choji complained, dragging his feet in the direction of the check in station.

"You guys look a mess, are you okay?" Izumo asked, eye wide at the dishevelled Genin and Itachi's bloody flak jacket.

"There were a lotta explosions," Choji mumbled, grabbing the pen in his bad hand. "Do we just sign in like we did to get out?"

"Uh… yeah," Izumo nodded, Kotetsu looking over his shoulder at the group in concern.

"'Kay," he mumbled and wrote his name with a wince. "If you see my pops before me, let him know I'm at the hospital."

"Same with us," Shikamaru said, taking the pen from Choji and signing himself in before passing it to Ino.

"Bye, Sensei!" Ino smiled, waving before catching up to the two boys, Choji in the middle of Shikamaru and herself.

"What happened?" Kotetsu blinked after the three before turning his confused gaze to Itachi.

"Our target turned out to be highly ranked in the Bingo Book," he explained, scrawling his name with an angry splodge at the end. He didn't elaborate as he walked away, more than ready to collapse on his bed once he made his report to the Hokage.

"You look quite worn, Itachi," the Third Hokage said in usual his gravelly tone. "Where are your team?"

"I'm fine, sir." Itachi shook his head slightly. "As for my team, they're getting patched up."

"Did your mission go awry?"

"To put it lightly," Itachi mumbled before straightening and replying at a proper volume, "We discovered who was behind the troubles in Bakugakure, however we were unable to avoid conflict. The village took damage and we were unable to detain the culprit."

The Hokage steepled his fingers and levelled Itachi with a stern look. "I find it hard to imagine that someone of your calibre should fail such a simple espionage mission, with a team more than suitably equipped. What more aren't you telling us?"

"The culprit was Deidara, an S-ranked missing nin from Iwagakure," Itachi explained. "He's a bomber for hire and confirmed he'd been tasked with causing trouble in Bakugakure. However, he seems to have a fuse as short as his explosives and attempted to blow up the entire village with a huge bomb. My team and I were able to remove it before it activated, however we used up all our chakra in doing so. There was no sign of Deidara in the area afterward and once I was able, I sent summons out to scout, but the trail was cold."

"I see. Well, it's inadvisable to send a Genin team after such a target," the Hokage reasoned. "I'll have the ANBU look into it and check the boarders." Behind the Hokage, just outside the window, a shadow flickered. One of the several ANBU lingering around the tower likely going to organise the search team. "Meanwhile I'll send someone by tomorrow to collect your report."

Itachi blinked in surprise. "Y-you don't have to do that, Lord Hokage."

"Nonsense. You look exhausted. Go, rest, gather your thoughts and maybe go to the hospital yourself," Lord Hiruzen said with a small smile. Itachi flushed and bid his goodbye, heading for his apartment rather than the hospital.

He woke to the sound of banging on his door. Groaning softly, Itachi rolled over and tried to ignore it. Ten more minutes. The banging increased.

"Open up, Uchiha, Konoha Police." Oh Itachi could die right now. Letting out a heavy sigh, he sat up rubbed his eyes.

"I'm putting on pants, Teiuchi," he called, not getting up off the bed.

"Open the door now or I'll break it down," was the response, which got Itachi moving, because Uchiha Teiuchi definitely would break his door down. Itachi answered the door to the stern man, hair greasy and limp around his shoulders and dressed in nothing bar his boxers and the bandages on his shoulder. Teiuchi, in his standard Konoha Police uniform, shot Itachi a dirty look. "It's past ten in the morning, why are you still in bed?" he growled.

Itachi didn't bother answering and turned from the door to find clean clothes. Teiuchi followed him in and leant on the wall, crossing his arms, dark eyes watching Itachi with disapproval.

"Should I assume I'm under arrest?" Itachi asked finding a shirt and pulling it over his head.

"Not unless you make me," Teiuchi allowed. "But you will need to come to the station."

"Oh?" He couldn't think of anything he'd done to warrant such action. Did his father need to see him? Was Shisui okay? He thought back to the way he'd signed his name on the sign in sheet and wondered if Shisui had had him called in to check if Itachi himself was okay.

Teiuchi didn't elaborate and nearly manhandled him out the door once Itachi was dressed. The older man made sure Itachi was in front of him all the way to the station, presumably so Itachi couldn't make a break for it. Not that he much fancied escaping. It was just the police station, even if he did really hate his family; there was nothing in there that could hurt him.

The Konoha Police Department was nearly entirely Uchiha run and as such on their land, though thankfully on the outskirts, as Itachi didn't much like being paraded through the district like a delinquent, even if that was the face he put on. While most of the clan knew what he had done and went along with the plan willingly, there were still some that disliked how Itachi had taken the decision of rebellion out of Uchiha hands and most of the younger members didn't even know Itachi had spared their lives by falling. The dark looks of his clansmen hurt and they didn't stop despite the relative privacy of the Police Department walls, necessary as they were for the Uchiha deception.

Spread across two levels the bottom level functioned as a welcoming area and lead into a small number of cells. Konoha didn't really have a prison so to speak, suspects were detained in the cells to the rear of the building and either released if innocent, sent to the Intelligence Ops in another location for questioning that usually ended in torture, or outright executed. The welcome desk was manned by three police officers of low rank that would either direct visitors to prison cells, file prisons into said cells, or record crimes reported by the public, escalating the case to be reviewed by another higher ranked officer if required. All other police officers were either on patrol in Konoha's streets or on the Police Department's second floor, which was a collection of office spaces and interview rooms.

Glares from the dark eyes of his clansmen and several from activated Sharingan came from every police officer he and Teiuchi encountered as they made their way up to the second floor.

Itachi was briefly surprised Shisui wasn't at his desk, and thought perhaps his friend was on another mission until he spotted the other Uchiha by a filing cabinet on the far side of the room looking haggard, though that was to be expected; Shisui hated paperwork.

"Itachi," a low voice grumbled, footsteps approaching. Itachi turned to the voice as Teiuchi bowed. "Interview room three, let's get this over with. Thank you, Teiuchi, back to work."

"Hai, Fugaku-danchou."

Following his father, head held high and hands in his pockets it took Itachi a moment to realise that interview room three was one with a two-way mirror. Anyone could be on the other side, which mean he still couldn't break character.

Fugaku plonked himself into one chair and flipped open a file he had brought with him as well as a notepad. "Sit down." The barest of chakra pluses exuded through the room as a second table appeared to one side, with Fugaku and Itachi already sat.

Turning to the table with Fugaku, Itachi settled himself while Fugaku rubbed his face tiredly. "I heard about what happened with Deidara, are you okay?" the genuine concern in his father's voice had Itachi soften, though their genjustu counterparts remained motionless.

"I'm fine, Father. Just… shaken," he admitted. Turning to the side he reached out and tapped his counterpart's elbow. That Itachi slouched in his seat and began conversing with the other Fugaku, looking like a rather petulant brat despite Itachi now being eighteen years old. "Why the genjutsu?"

"Lord Hokage mentioned that Danzo has had his people surgically reconstructed for deep cover missions before. It was something he never condoned, but Lord Hokage worried that because there's no coup, Danzo might infiltrate the clan directly and sew further seeds of discontent to press us again," Fugaku explained. "I trust my kin about most things, but if you want your peace to hold, the trust must be absolutely hidden."

Itachi nodded, resting his elbows on the table and putting his head in his hands. "He's a monster."

"Certainly his brain cells aren't there, much like your crazy S-Rank bomber," Fugaku mused, his tone light. "Anything I should know you aren't already telling me?" After all, the real genjutsu was Itachi and Fugaku acting how they wished, the reality was beside them, awkward, wooden and more than a little hostile.

"Deidara? Hmm, he was… driven." Itachi chuckled and looked to Fugaku with a smile. "Reckless, just like my students. I ordered them to flee and they did the exact opposite."

"I'm not sure comparing your team to an S-Ranked _criminal_ is a good thing, Itachi," Fugaku returned sternly.

"No, but I mean it in the most positive manner. They saw danger and refused to leave me behind. I commend that, but even more, they worked together seamlessly. Though… they do need to work on risk assessment," he sighed.

Fugaku chuckled. "You're referring to Choji? I heard from Choza that he's doing fine. And that your skill with genjutsu is, and I quote 'scary good'."

Itachi snorted.

"Was Deidara working for anyone you could identify?"

"No. There was no identifying insignia, I think it was a simple mission contract made with the bandits attacking Bakugakure, though you could try asking Ino if she knows more. She managed to catch him in her Mind Transfer jutsu."

"You didn't ask her?"

"I did, but she wasn't sure. Inoichi might have checked her memories for things she didn't catch?"

Fugaku hummed. "Perhaps. I'll go later today and inquire." He nodded and made a side note among all the ones recorded outside of the genjutsu. "Anything else you need to report?"

"How's Sasuke?"

"On his first C-Rank with his team. Hopefully the same thing doesn't happen to him," Fugaku replied with an easy smile.

"Misranked missions are rare, especially such a jump as mine," Itachi reasoned. "Where's he off to?"

"The Land of Waves. They're escorting a bridge builder."

Itachi blinked. "Really?"

"Yeah, I saw them on the way out. The bridge builder's a drunk. Sasuke will spend more time keeping his team from being killed by building equipment than anything else. That's my bet."

Itachi chuckled. He hoped that would be the case. As much as he hoped Sasuke would grow into his ninja role as well as his place as Clan heir, he also wanted Sasuke to have a softer start to his shinobi career than Itachi himself had had. On a battlefield at age 4 and seeing the death of a comrade only four years later… that was no life for a child. And while Sasuke had graduated six years later than Itachi, that didn't necessarily mean he was more emotionally prepared.

"Well, I think we're done here." Fugaku rose from his chair. Itachi stood too, only to be quickly pulled into a hug by Fugaku. "I'm glad you're okay. Stay safe, son."

Itachi's hands rose to return the gesture. "You too, Father." It might have hurt that he and his father could only be honest in a genjutsu world, but almost strangely, Itachi had never felt closer to Fugaku. When he had lived under the man's roof, they rarely talked beyond missions and reports. Itachi had been perfectly happy with his own company, or spoiling Sasuke in Fugaku's place and didn't bother his family with his thoughts and concerns because he had Shisui to confide in. He'd also admittedly been very arrogant in his abilities, and thought more than a few of the Uchiha higher ups complete and utter morons, his father dipping in and out of that consideration as the years passed.

Now though, on the occasions they met, Fugaku asked after his wellbeing, they treated each other as people, equals needed to keep Konoha's peace. It was strange, but not bad. Pushing chakra into his eyes, Itachi dispelled the genjutsu with his Sharingan. The sensation of his father's warm embrace evaporated, replaced by the hard wooden chair pressing into his slouched spine.

Shoving himself up, Itachi looked to the door. "Well, I think that's everything. If you don't mind, Fugaku, I'll be going." He didn't look back or wait for permission to be dismissed. Not five minutes after he'd left the station, a shadow shifted to his side. Turning his head his eyes met Sharingan and the world slipped away for a moment.

There was no light, no sound until Shisui's voice said to him from everywhere at once. "One week from now, your old training ground."

Then suddenly the world was at rights and Itachi didn't break his stride, continuing on his way home, where he showered and after a look in the barren cupboards, resigned himself to needing to go shopping.

* * *

Sunday rolled around and Itachi got the sense his team was in that awkward stage of being mostly if not fully recovered, but used to the brief pause in training. They weren't eager to go back to their regime, but they were obviously itching to do something. Choji's arm was still in a sling, but he'd been given the all clear to train and just to be careful while the skin continued to recover.

"So… what are we going to do today?" Ino asked hesitantly, looking around the clearing. Itachi had sent a summons a couple of hours ago informing them to meet at Training Ground Five, which consisted of a large lake surrounded by pockets of forest and boulders.

"Do you all remember how you learned to walk up trees?" Itachi asked, turning so his back was to the water. The three Genin nodded and Itachi pointed to the trees around them. "Show me then. Pause at halfway up the trunk."

There were raised eyebrows of doubt and suspicion, and Itachi felt a faint spark of pride that his team were obeying, while glancing over their shoulders at him like Itachi was going to suddenly change the task to something hard and possibly life threatening.

Ino jumped to the halfway point, twisting gracefully and landed in a crouch against the tree trunk, Shikamaru doing the same, while Choji walked up the tree to take his position. Itachi gave it a moment, checking their stability and activating his Sharingan to better assess their chakra control. There was very little of it going to waste. Itachi nodded to himself, feeling the three could cope with the next level.

"Good. Now you may already know this, but the tree climbing technique can be applied to other surfaces. One of which is water." Here, Itachi sprang from the ground and back flipped to land in the middle of the lake. He leisurely made his way back to the shore, pausing several feet away to sit down on the surface, placing his hand on the water to show his team that the technique worked with other limbs, as Shikamaru and Ino had tried when learning to walk up trees. "I want to get on to evasive manoeuvres, but I'd like you to learn to walk on water too. Both skills are important if you want to progress in the Chuunin Exams."

"So… you're putting us in for them?" Choji asked.

"Yes, there's a meeting between Jonin Sensei and Lord Hokage this evening. I'll be putting your names forward, then handing the paperwork out."

"We're still allowed? After disobeying orders on the mission?" Shikamaru asked, jumping down and coming to the water's edge.

"Yeah, we only got half pay," Ino pointed out, "because Bakugakure town hall was damaged."

"And Deidara escaped," Choji added with a frown.

Ino pouted. "So what? I'll bet the report to Bakugakure was fluffed like we killed the bandits."

Itachi ignored the segue, "Yes, you can still compete. It isn't about missions completed, but experience. I believe the skills you demonstrated in Bakugakure are sufficient enough to be considered for Chuunin status." Though it wasn't a certainty that they would succeed, it would be a valuable assessment of their skills compared to that of their peers. And Itachi would be lying if he didn't want to enter his team for the selfish reason of seeing Sasuke participate. To see how much his little brother had grown. "But back to the task at hand. Walk on water. Please," Itachi said, gesturing before him.

"Yeah… can we… not?" Ino tried.

"Well, you either walk on water or I set up a series of forest ambushes."

"Y-y'know what?" Choji started. "I fancy walking on water."

"Me too," Ino nodded hurriedly.

Shikamaru paled, "Yep, I'm up for a swim."

Itachi held back a chuckle as the three gathered to the shore and started to test the water with their hands.

"Okay, so, like before chakra resists the surface," Shikamaru mused.

"Not enough. My hand's all wet," Choji complained.

Ino frowned and caught Itachi's gaze. "Did you cheat this out with Sharingan?"

Itachi blinked. "Why would I do that?"

"To copy the technique and learn it straight away," Ino replied.

"Yeah, we've seen your eyes go red during training a bunch," added Choji, "That's the Sharingan right?"

"Uhm, well yes, that's the Sharingan, but I don't use it like that. I learned tree and water walking without it since I didn't unlock the Sharingan until a few years later," Itachi explained. "I use it in training to check your chakra levels so I don't push you too much."

"Really? You seem like the type that would know all your clan's jutsu and abilities by the time you could walk," Shikamaru said, putting his hand further into the water and frowning at it as though it would tell him the secrets of the universe.

Itachi smiled, "Nope. I could do the Fireball jutsu and my cousin taught me sleight of hand when I was bunking off the academy. But no Sharingan."

"Ooh, Sensei's a rebel, ditching classes," Ino teased.

Choji frowned, "Wish we could skip training."

"You can if you don't get caught doing it," Itachi said, giving a small chuckle. "I used to send a Shadow Clone to the academy."

Choji flushed, "Y-yeah, but you'd know if I sent a clone. Your Sharingan would see it."

"There are other ways to cheat it. The Sharingan isn't infallible. It's one of the things that annoys me most about the Uchiha. They act like it makes them gods. The Hyuuga do too, but I have to deal with them less in general," he added, shifting to stand on his hands on the water. Slowly, he took the weight of his injured arm, tucked his hand behind his back and started to do push ups. The shoulder was mostly healed, but the joint was still stiff and throbbed with pain as it scabbed over and repaired itself.

"So you don't think you're better than us because you can learn our Hiden justu with a single look?" Shikamaru asked, his tone betraying his sarcasm.

"Not at all. I respect your hard work," said Itachi. "And just because I know the jutsu's fundamentals by using my Sharingan to copy it doesn't mean I can use it perfectly outright," he explained as his ponytail flopped over his shoulder, the tip dipping into the water with each push up. Itachi resigned himself to a wet jacket later since he didn't fancy expending the chakra needed to keep it dry. "I have to anticipate the amount of chakra used, whether the user I copied was even proficient with the jutsu, manage the area of effect and find optimal positions to activate the jutsu in, just like you would, except I often don't have the contextual information of being told a jutsu's pros and cons. It could be a jutsu I copied is perfectly fine in a large space, but I discover is utterly useless in a small space and can't even be modified for small-scale use."

Shikamaru nodded, gaze flickering between the water and Itachi. "What other limits do you have?"

"The Sharingan can't be used to copy other bloodline abilities, I can mimic chakra patterns and movements, but things so ingrained in DNA can't be replicated. Also if a person doesn't look a Sharingan user in the eye, it's much harder to trap them in genjutsu. I can do it because I specialise in genjutsu like Kurenai-sensei and have other ways of trapping someone than eye contact. But Sharingan users usually don't learn more complex genjutsu because their eyes allow users to perform a complex genjutsu with no seals."

Choji groaned, "I didn't follow a word of that."

Chuckling, Itachi summarised, "Don't look in their eyes, if you're worried, pulse your chakra to break any illusions. Better to be overcautious than trapped."

"So just say it like that."

"Aw, but I like being oblique."

"If you're obese I'd hate to know what you think of me," Choji mumbled, shoving his hand on the water sadly, drenching his hand.

Sighing, Itachi got back to his feet and walked over, crouching before Choji. Raising one hand Itachi poked Choji in the forehead with two fingers. "Oblique. It means indirect or doing something in a roundabout way. You're fine just as you are, Choji," he assured, smiling softly.

"Ow. Why are you always doing that anyway?" Choji complained, hand over his headband.

"Because you don't need to worry about unnecessary things. Now, back to the task at hand."


	9. Chapter 8: Recommendation

"Now that you all have gathered, Jonin Sensei, I would like to hear your recommendations for the Chuunin exams."

The Hokage looked around the ninja sat in the room, most were Jonin, but there were also Chuunin ninja that would be participating in the exams too. A beat of silence followed.

"I'd like to put forward my team for selection, Hokage-sama," Itachi said, hoping no one would challenge him on it.

"What after you nearly got Choji killed?" Iruka balked, half-standing up from his kneeled position.

"Choji is fine. You're exaggerating."

"You and Kakashi are irresponsible!" Iruka argued, "Sasuke was heavily injured in his last mission too. They only graduated two months ago; they should not be exposed to such danger!"

"If not now, when Iruka-sensei?" Kakashi asked flatly.

Sasuke had been hurt on his mission? Itachi fought to keep his expression neutral. Yes, he was worried about Sasuke, but here was not the place to comment. Certainly he couldn't argue with Kakashi.

"Both were mistakes on the client end," Hiruzen broke in, drawing attention back to himself. "I accept your recommendation, Itachi-sensei. Anyone else?"

"Yes, I'd also like my team to participate," Kakashi said with the barest hint of smugness, his visible eye still looking at Iruka. Kurenai raised her hand and recommended her team followed by a ninja in a green jumpsuit with garish orange legwarmers and an ugly bowl cut. Itachi knew him by sight as Might Gai, but generally avoided any and all contact with the man or the smaller copy of Gai that followed him around like the beginnings of a cult.

"Alright. Please deliver the application forms to your students. As they progress through the examinations, further instructions will be provided. Your teams are still permitted to go on missions, but I would recommend against it. If they are absent for any part of the exams it is instant failure," Hiruzen explained. "I would also appreciate it if all of you could be welcoming to the foreign ninja coming to Konoha to take the exams. However, do not forget to be vigilant. Intelligence suggests the Village Hidden in the Sound, of which we have one participating team, is linked to Orochimaru."

Itachi's lip curled. Orochimaru was supposedly one of the three legendary Sannin, the students of the Third Hokage. However, the only memories Itachi had of the man were of a pale creep that had been lusting over his body. He'd only been young when Orochimaru had left the village, so Itachi made a mental note to ask about the man if he was going to suddenly become relevant again.

He sent the forms via summoning crow and made his way to Kakashi's home. It didn't cross Itachi's mind as to whether his fellow ninja would be there or not as it did not matter. He knocked politely on the door and after a minute of waiting, Itachi let himself in with a gentle tendril of chakra into the lock, shifting the pins and allowing him into the room beyond.

Unlike Itachi's own, Kakashi had furnished his apartment with pictures and bookcases, though most appeared empty bar the shelf above his bed, where Icha Icha Paradise stood out beside a few other novels and pictures of Kakashi's Genin teams; one where he was a Genin himself with Nohara Rin, Uchiha Obito and the man who later became the Fourth Hokage Namikaze Minato. The other was his current team. In both, it was the Kunoichi that seemed the happiest to be in the team and after a slightly longer look, the further similarities were very apparent. Kakashi and Minato were in the same pose, a hand on each of the male team member's head, the Uchiha of the group was on the left. It seemed as well that both pictures were taken in the same location.

He didn't bother flicking on a light, instead taking a seat at Kakashi's desk which stood to the right of the bed and had a bulletin board on the wall, with notes such as when the rubbish collection was and reminders of when the next Icha Icha novel was being released.

Itachi didn't have to wait long for Kakashi to appear, the older ninja opening his door with the key like any normal human being.

"Well, this feels familiar," he noted a paper bag of groceries in hand. "And somewhat more malicious in the dark."

"Mr Ukki is bigger than when I was here last," Itachi said, pointing to the plant beside the team pictures, where the title 'Ukki-san' was written onto the pot.

Kakashi turned his head to survey the plant too. "I suppose he is. If you came to check up on my gardening ability, that's just creepy," he added, his visible eye displaying a remarkable amount of disgust. "What do you want?"

"I want to know why we both nearly got our teams killed despite our qualifications."

"Oh?" Kakashi paused in his step, presumably he had been about to ignore Itachi in favour of storing his shopping away. Instead, he now dropped the bag unceremoniously on the desk by Itachi and took a seat on his bed. "I suppose it is a curious situation. It'd be coincidence if it was only one of us."

"But both makes a correlation," Itachi agreed. "Will you tell me about your mission?"

"So long as you tell me about yours," Kakashi allowed. While the two didn't explicitly like one another, they were both efficient in their explanations. After his own mission summary, Kakashi went on to explain how his team had been almost constantly assaulted on their way to the Land of Waves.

"The second time we fought Zabuza, his brat joined the fray, matching up against Sasuke. I couldn't see the details as Zabuza was using a mist jutsu to make the Sharingan harder to use, but the kid also had a kekkei genkai. Ice transformation."

Itachi hummed, hand on his chin, "You mentioned Naruto was asleep when you left that morning, did he join you later?"

"Yes, he and Sasuke fought against the boy, Haku. I believe something happened that caused strain to Naruto's seal, though I can't prove it," Kakashi said. "His seal isn't visible most of the time."

"Probably linked to the kyuubi's chakra."

Kakashi nodded, "Kushina mentioned jinchuriki often have similar seals that allow for the host's and beast's chakras to mix. She never showed me hers, but I wouldn't be surprised to find Naruto's is the same."

"Would you consider it reasonable to say Naruto's awakening saved your team?"

"Not at all. I bested Zabuza and Haku jumped into the path of my Raikiri without instruction as I attempted to finish Zabuza off," Kakashi explained. "Though I would consider it reasonable to say that Naruto saved himself and Sasuke. But I would have gotten there sooner if his chakra hadn't skyrocketed."

Itachi chewed on his lip slightly, not the answer he wanted to hear, but it was fine. They needed to let the children grow, if it was possible even under dangerous circumstances, it was their duty as Jonin Sensei to do so.

"You mentioned your team ignored a direct order to retreat. Are you sure they're ready for what's ahead?" Kakashi asked, breaking Itachi's train of thought.

"I really don't know what I would have done if Ino hadn't bought us those precious seconds at the end. And I have no idea if I would have been able to defeat Deidara had they left," Itachi admitted. "But I think they can manage. Their teamwork is impeccable."

Kakashi put a finger to his chin. "If we take the stance that our teams nearly died because they were targeted, who do we assume the culprit was? And is that person the same for both teams?"

"It's possible. I had a fleeting thought it could be Orochimaru."

Kakashi tipped his head curiously. "Oh? Why him?"

Itachi considered his words, "He had an… obsession with me when I was younger. I believe what he was really after was the Sharingan."

"Something like that would sound about right. I heard a lot of rumours back in the day that he was obsessed with learning all the jutsu in the world. A Sharingan or two would certainly help that venture." Kakashi agreed, adding slowly, "It's also possible since Sound will be bringing ninja into the village that he could try again."

Itachi frowned. "How? We'll be with the other Sensei and on guard simply because outsiders are in the village."

"Because the target may not be us. Sasuke unlocked his Sharingan during his fight with Haku," Kakashi explained. "If there's a team from Sound in the exams, they may target Sasuke instead."

Itachi's lip twisted in displeasure. Well that was a rather large detail to miss out. Still, by now Sasuke would have told his parents about his Sharingan, which means he would be aware of people trying to take it and the jutsus that seal it. Sasuke would also be invited to Clan meetings, which could have… interesting consequences. Being the heir didn't make him any less of a child in that space, something that had annoyed Itachi to no end.

"What else do you know about Orochimaru?"

"Nothing really. Anko was his student, but I doubt she knows much about him either," Kakashi shrugged. "He was ousted from the village a little bit after the Third Ninja War due to inhumane experimentation."

"What kind of experiments?"

"I'm not sure on the details, but Orochimaru killed a lot of children trying to implant some kind of power in them." Kakashi raised a finger and pointed at the juncture between the back of his neck and his shoulder. "Anko has a mark around here that sometimes alters her chakra flow in an unnatural manner. Apparently as a Genin she woke up after passing out in pain to a room full of ninja her age with similar marks, but they were all dead. Only she survived."

"Well that's disturbing." Sitting back, Itachi crossed his arms. "I don't remember hearing about any ANBU teams tracking Orochimaru either." This lack of intel was… unnatural. Sure, their intelligence network wasn't infallible, but how did no one notice children going missing, winding up dead and then _not_ track the bastard that did it?

"I don't think anyone was. Or the teams that did were killed," Kakashi shrugged. "I have a theory it's just a Sannin thing."

"A what?"

"The Sannin were all Lord Third's students. When Orochimaru left, Jiraya followed. I think Lord Hokage ordered no one to pursue because he thinks Jiraya is handling it."

"Jiraya? As in _that_ Jiraya?" Itachi asked jabbing a finger at the Icha Icha book on Kakashi's bookcase, his tone dripping with disbelief.

Kakashi seemed unphased. "I'm not saying it's the case. It could be there are people watching Orochimaru and we don't know. It could be that Root was handling that back in our ANBU days." Sadly as ex-ANBU, they both knew it wasn't their place to ask. ANBU agents were often given classified missions that couldn't be spoken about to anyone but Lord Hokage himself. Itachi's time spying on the Uchiha being one such mission.

Sensing that was the end of the conversation, Itachi rose from his chair and turned to leave.

"Itachi," Kakashi called, Itachi pausing mid-step in the doorway. Silence followed so Itachi turned, barely catching a book as it was thrown at his face. "You should read that. It might drag the stick out of your ass."

Moving the book so he could see the title, Itachi turned beat red. "Y-you shitty pervert! Why would I read this!?"

"It holds information about the great secrets in life. Goodnight Itachi-Sensei," Kakashi bid, his tone suggesting a smile before he slammed the door in Itachi's face.

Itachi trembled in a mixture of utter shock and anger. Icha Icha Paradise's cover dented slightly in his grip. "Damn you Kakashi," he muttered, spinning on his heel, shoving the book in his back pouch as he went. He would rather die than be caught with erotica in public.

* * *

A week later at the designated time, Itachi slipped into his old training ground on high alert. He kept his chakra low and his senses high for other presences. Shisui was already there waiting for him on the rock Itachi used to hide targets behind.

Spotting his friend, Shisui smiled and waved.

"You seem in high spirits," Itachi commented, a smile working its way onto his face too.

"What can I say, I miss your face," Shisui said, jumping down to meet Itachi. "Sasuke has his Sharingan now."

"Yes, I'd heard from Kakashi."

"Oh? Are you getting along with the other Jonin Sensei then?"

"More like being forced to socialise with them," Itachi huffed. "I'm slowly plotting Kakashi's purely accidental murder."

Shisui laughed, throwing his head back in amusement. "Well, in all seriousness. You look like you're doing okay. I was worried when I saw the sign in sheet."

"You'd be frazzled too after being exploded in the dark and trying to tape up a twelve year old with third degree burns for an arm."

Shisui winced. "That does genuinely sound awful. I read your report after you left the station," he continued. "We should have known Deidara was in our boarders."

Itachi raised an eyebrow, "You looked into it?"

"There's a number of small but similar discrepancies over the decades. Missing information where our ninja were involved at one point in time, but there was no follow up or the people that could corroborate the story are dead. They're quite well hidden; most are from the wars, periods where records weren't as easily kept or involve areas out of Konoha's jurisdiction."

"Those discrepancies would be random chance at best. What have you got that links them?" Itachi wondered.

"Danzo." Noticing Itachi's drawn eyebrows, Shisui added, "You seem surprised."

"I thought you might say Orochimaru. He seems to be the flavour of the month right now."

"With that Sound Village team that's wandering around? Nah. But Danzo's got links to Orochimaru, so I suppose it's possible. Just, Orochimaru wouldn't have any interest or ability to censor our intelligence network."

Frowning, Itachi asked, "Wait, go back. How are Orochimaru and Danzo connected?"

"Danzo put Orochimaru forward for the position of Fourth Hokage. Obviously he didn't get it and not long after he left the village after getting caught in a secret base doing creepy experiments," Shisui explained. "Knowing that, I started thinking that Danzo could be manipulating the flow of information to better suit his agenda. Sure enough I see records of events not lining up with the truth of the matter."

"So this goes beyond the coup?"

"Oh definitely. The Man Who Can't Be Hokage just manipulates the world from the shadows instead."

"Can you prove anything?"

Shisui shook his head. "No, the signs aren't even there unless you're specifically looking for them."

"Can you draw up a list of incidents?"

"I can try, but it'll be hard. I get to look through more files now while being off police duty, but if I take too many or the wrong one, that will send intel to Root that we're onto them. At best I can get you something in a month, but it'll only be as good as 'I think Danzo was here' or 'someone's uncle's friend's cousin's wife saw a thing that could be a ANBU shadow or a particularly violent leaf six years ago at the equinox of Tuesday'."

It was better than nothing, and Itachi trusted Shisui's skill implicitly. "Well, let's hope it was sunny on the equinox of Tuesday."

Shisui smirked and shook his head a little. "We can hope. Have you looked into anything on your end?"

"Sort of. When I was speaking to Kakashi before, we theorised Sasuke could be targeted in the Chuunin exams. If they use the Forest of Death as they did during my Chuunin exams, it would be the perfect area for an ambush."

"Sasuke will be expecting it in that area though," argued Shisui, "The main point of that task is to fight the other teams to gain scrolls of heaven and earth. Unless. You're concerned about people other than the Genin getting in?"

"Exactly. I know people will be watching and there will be a Jonin area but all the same… I can't shake the feeling something will happen."

Shisui reached out and squeezed Itachi's shoulder. "You're being a good brother. It's natural to worry about him, Itachi. But Sasuke can manage. He's been doing missions for your father over the years. He knows how to protect himself and he'll have his teammates there too. It'll be okay."

Itachi wasn't totally convinced but he forced himself to accept the situation. He couldn't protect Sasuke all of the time, and Shisui was right. Sasuke was strong, and he would no doubt get stronger as his Sharingan developed. Be able to protect his friends.

Again Tenma's blood-stained form flashed before his eyes. And the strange masked man that had brought it about. Sasuke was already better than he was back then. His team was still alive and together. They'd be okay, Itachi had to believe in that.

* * *

"Room 301 by four PM…" Ino hummed checking the Chuunin application form once more.

"I didn't think the Academy _had_ a room 301," Choji mumbled as they walked through the entryway to the ninja academy. It wasn't a school day, so there weren't any children around, which meant anyone they came across was likely taking part in the exams.

"They probably changed the signage or something so we wouldn't have home advantage," Shikamaru yawned. "It's gonna be such a drag."

"The bigger drag is Itachi-sensei making us train before we came out," Choji insisted as he fumbled with a bag of crisps. Rolling her eyes, Ino whipped the bag out of Choji's fingers and opened it for him before returning them. "Thank you, Ino~." Choji sang.

"Yeah, yeah, just keep your eye out for the room."

As they wandered through the hall and ascended the stairs they came across a small crowd of people trying to get into a room.

"Number… 301. This is it," Choji said, rising up on his tip toes to see what the ruckus was.

"I could have sworn we only went up one flight of stairs…" Ino frowned. Beside her, Shikamaru looked around also unsure.

"No way it's that easy." Bringing his fingers together into the ram seal, he released a small burst of chakra, more than enough to remove any genjutsu, something his team had long become paranoid about as it was one of Itachi's favourite techniques. Sure enough the next time he looked at the sign above the room everyone wanted to enter, it said 201, not 301.

"It's not that easy, looks like there's two guys beating up anyone trying to get in," Choji noted.

"Probably a fake out. Look again," Shikamaru said, touching Choji on the shoulder and letting out a burst of chakra. "Ino it's genjutsu."

Ino quickly made a release seal and frowned at the sign. "I guess the academy layout is the same as normal then?"

"Seems like it. Let's go upstairs."

"Is it okay to leave those guys there?" Choji asked, looking over his shoulder.

"I don't see why not, genjutsu's easy to break out of," Ino reasoned. "Lots of people probably figured it out."

"Well, maybe. But not every team has a Shikamaru."

Shikamaru smirked. "Nope, I'm totally special."

"A special kind of lazy maybe," a familiar voice called from the end of the hall.

"Ah! Itachi-sensei!" Itachi smiled slightly and waved from his perch on the windowsill.

"What're you doing here?" Shikamaru asked.

"I wanted to see if you all turned up. I'm glad you did," he added, "You see, you need a three man cell to participate in the exams."

"Nice of you to tell us before we came," Ino huffed.

"To be fair, neither did our parents," Choji consoled.

"Not the point."

Itachi raised his voice, drawing attention back to himself, "Alright, alright, enough." He tipped his head to the door. "Get in there and make yourselves comfortable. I'll see you outside when you're done."

Choji raised his eyebrow, "You're not going to wish us luck?"

"I don't need to, I have every faith you'll pass here, but if it makes you feel better, best of luck, Choji."

Choji smiled and shot Itachi a thumbs up, then turned on his heel to catch up to Ino and Shikamaru who were waiting, each with a hand on the door. "Let's go!"

Opening the door to the assembly hall, it was laid out like a normal classroom but on a larger scale, with easily over one hundred desks. Only the first few rows were filled up and only a handful weren't wearing Konoha headbands. The ninja that were there already though turned to regard the three rookies intently, their gazes dark.

"Who let the brats in?" asked one.

"That fat one looks like he's going to piss his pants," commented another.

Shikamaru nudged his friends, "Let's go over there. Kiba said he got recommended too so their team will be here soon."

"I really wish we hadn't come three hours early now," Choji mumbled, sitting in the corner as Shikamaru suggested.

"It'll be okay, Choji, ignore them," Ino encouraged.

Shikamaru got up on the desk and made a show of yawning. "I'm gonna nap until this starts." Laying down he turned to raise an eyebrow at Choji.

"I think I'll watch the clouds. I'll nudge you if there's a particularly good one."

Shikamaru smirked. "Sounds good to me."

Ino rolled her eyes, "You two are so relaxed. I wish I'd brought a book."

More comments about their childishness and inexperience rose, but so did a couple of comments of doubt. "They wouldn't be so calm unless they were either completely naïve or completely prepared," and variations thereof could be heard more than once.

It was the most awkward three hours of their lives, broken up by more much older ninja entering, finding seats and muttering amongst themselves until a single group entered an hour later, which wasn't unusual, but the sudden change in the air snapped Shikamaru out of his daze. He sat up slowly and looked to the door, spotting three ninja with unfamiliar headbands.

"Suna ninja," Ino provided softly, also looking over. One was dressed in a black one-piece with a weird cat hood and purple facial markings with some kind of item on his back covered in bandages, the next was a blonde with her hair separated into four ponytails and wore a lilac dress over mesh armour with a sash around the middle and a large folding fan strapped to her back. Finally between them was a shorter boy with red hair and dark bags around his eyes. He looked quite plain in his black shirt over ninja mesh and plain dark pants. It looked as though he had a huge gourd strapped to his back with a strange leather harness and white strip of fabric. But it wasn't their appearance that had caught Team Ten's attention. It was the killing intent the little one was giving off. It was stifling.

"Let's… not get their bad side," Choji suggested his voice hardly louder than breathing. Silently, Shikamaru agreed. This guy was worse news than Deidara.

With barely half an hour to spare, a larger group of ninja arrived, amongst them was Team Seven.

"Sasuke!" Ino ran over and threw her arms around the boy. "I thought you guys were never going to show!"

"So you signed up for this too?" Shikamaru asked Naruto, coming over to greet them, hands in his pockets.

"Hell yeah! Believe it!"

"Shikamaru! There you are!" Shikamaru and Naruto turned to the voice, showing the last of the rookie Konoha teams, Team 8. "And the blonde shrimp too!"

"Hey Kiba!" Naruto greeted, the insult sliding off him. Kiba was a boy about Shikamaru's height with a head of shaggy brown hair hidden under his fur trimmed hoodie. Like Choji he had facial tattoos common for his clan in the shape of two red triangles going from his eyes to point at his chin. A bark drew attention to Kiba's puppy, Akamaru, who as far as Shikamaru knew, lived either on Kiba's head, as he was now, or in the front of Kiba's hoodie.

Either side of him were Shino, a quiet boy from the Aburame Clan who all wore big jackets and goggles over their eyes, Shino being no different, and Hinata, who was prone to stammering and seemed to be staring at Naruto with her lavender eyes, trying to find something to say.

"Hey, Hinata, you came too?" Choji said, smiling. "Well done, you're super smart so I'll be they make you Chuunin."

Hinata turned her head, a blush forming on her cheeks, "Aa-ah, th-thank you, Choji."

"Looks like the nine rookies of the leaf are all here then," Shino noted. "I wonder who among us will succeed?"

"We did a bunch of training, our team's totally going to pass!" Kiba declared.

"Training isn't everything if you don't know how to put it into practise," Sasuke jabbed, having finally extracted himself from Ino.

"YEAH! Like hell we'll lose to you!" Naruto roared.

"Sorry, N-Naruto, Kiba didn't mean it like that," Hinata mumbled, unable to meet Naruto's eyes as her blush grew.

"EH?" Naruto cocked his head and stared at Hinata. As he was about to open his mouth and say something else, a new voice cut in.

"You guys should be more quiet. The competition's going to eat you alive."

Turning, the group found a leaf ninja in a purple turtle neck and pants over a grey shirt. On his hands were purple gloves with a sheet of metal over the back to protect his knuckles and a beige sash around his middle, probably for hiding weapons in. Other than obviously being older than the nine rookies, he didn't seem particularly strong. He certainly didn't give off the same air as the sand ninja had.

"Who the hell are you, Four-Eyes?" demanded Naruto.

The boy pushed his circular glasses up his nose a touch. "I'm Kabuto, maybe you should take a look behind you and be glad I'm offering helpful advice?"

"Be…hind?"

As Kabuto said, behind them a group of three ninja that looked more than a little ready to tear someone's throat out were glaring, one already half out of their chair. Naruto paled.

"Their ninja from Amegakure. They have super short tempers, so calm down before something happens? We're all nervous you know," Kabuto explained. "If we fail here it's another six months until ninjas can try again. I mean, if my Sensei even lets me try again."

"This isn't your first time," Sasuke noted.

"Nope, my seventh."

"Wow, you must know a lot then. About the exam," Choji said, a slight creep of awe in his tone.

"You bet!" Kabuto smiled. "Hey, why don't I share some of it with you?" he added, reaching into his pouch and pulling out a small deck of cards. "With my Ninja Info Cards!"

"That name is so lame," Shikamaru muttered under his breath while they all looked on in confusion as Kabuto knelt down and placed the deck on the floor.

"Since the exam is every six months, I've four years' worth of slowly built up on these cards – almost two hundred of them – they all look blank at first glance," he added, flipping the first card over to show the lack of information. "But if I use my chakra…" A small puff of smoke erupted and the card changed instead to a map of the world, with graph of ninja by country.

"This is… the people taking the exam this year?" Sasuke guessed.

"Yep, I've been counting the people in the room and updating while I wait, so it might be a little off if some more ninja come in while we're talking, but I can fix that later," Kabuto said.

"Do you have information on individuals?" Sasuke asked.

"Of course! Why? Someone you're worried about?" Kabuto chuckled.

Naruto nudged Choji. "He's worried about _me_ obviously."

"Uhm… wouldn't Sasuke know how strong you are?"

Naruto's eyebrow twitched in annoyance.

"The info might not be complete, but I'll have something. Can you describe them?" Kabuto asked.

"Gaara of the Sand village and Rock Lee from Konoha," Sasuke said flatly, surprising Kabuto.

"Oh nice! If you know their names that makes this way easier." He moved to draw two cards from his deck. "Here we go. Rock Lee first. He's a year older than you guys, his Sensei is Might Gai. Done 20 D-Rank missions and 12 C-Rank. Other than his taijutsu being off the charts, there's nothing really of note about him. He made a stir when he graduated last year but this is his first time entering the Chuunin exams, same with his teammates Hyuuga Neji and Tenten." Leaving the card on the floor, Shikamaru could see the profile of data and a stat wheel framing a picture of Rock Lee, a kid he remembered seeing a while ago because the garish jumpsuit and bowl cut had been pretty hard to miss, even without Ino commenting on the fashion disaster.

Next, Kabuto brought up a similar data card on Gaara. Shikamaru's eyes widened. It was the red-headed sand ninja from before. Why the hell would Sasuke want information on _that_ guy?

"Gaara of the Desert. My information is spotty because Wind and Fire country don't have much contact or friendly treaties, plus he's a newcomer, I haven't seen him before. But I do know he's done eight C-Ranks and even a B-Rank, which is near impossible for a Genin. Word on the street is Gaara's never even gotten a scratch. He must be pretty fast…"

"Or freakisly strong," Ino mumbled.

"I'm more of the opinion people see him and run the other way," Shikamaru commented. "Who're his teammates?"

"Kankuro and Temari. And their info cards are about the same. They're total unknowns, which is weird because Kankuro is 14 and Temari 15. At least in Konoha, ninja don't get held back for that long."

Choji sighed, "Seems like everyone is unknown."

"Well, it makes sense," Kabuto reasoned. "Particularly since the exams move country every six months, most villages will send their strong ninja to the foreign lands as a show of strength, meaning anyone who isn't leaf is probably super strong. But as you saw with Lee, we tend to put our best foot forward too."

"Says the habitual failure," muttered Sasuke.

"Who are the other villages than leaf, sand and rain?" Naruto blinked.

"Don't you know _anything_?" Ino chastised. "The five big ninja villages are Konoha, Suna, Kiri, Kumo and Iwa."

"There's also littler villages here, like Kusa, Ame and Oto."

"Sound village?" Shikamaru said, raising his eyebrow at the last name. "Never heard of it."

"They're recently formed, and only have one team entering this year. They're the ones with a musical note on their headband wearing camo," Kabuto replied.

Silence fell on the rookies, each awkwardly avoiding eye contact as they digested the fact the bst of the best were here, and yet their Sensei had each thrown their fresh teams into the exams too. Even Naruto was shaking like a leaf.

As Sakura reached out to comfort him, her words were drowned out as he exploded in excitement, finger jabbing at the rest of the examinees. "My name Uzumaki Naruto! Don't forget it because I'm going to beat all you bastards!" he yelled confidently. "Believe it!"

"No, no you're definitely going to get us killed instead," Shikamaru said, a beat of sweat rolling down his temple.

"Is he braindead?!" Ino demanded of Sakura, whose hands were still over her ears from being too close to Naruto when he shouted.

"You fucking idiot!" Sakura screeched at Naruto, unaware Sasuke looked just as, if not more confident than Naruto.

Around them, the air grew thick with tension. It seemed Naruto's outburst had been taken as a challenge by the entire room. Them against the rookies.

This was going to be the ultimate drag.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I looked up Dosu and his team. Apparently they're actually wearing 'snake patterned' clothes. But it totally looks like purple camo to me, so it's staying in. Plus I'd like to assume Orochimaru being behind Otogakure is a little more secret than common knowledge. Kabuto knows obviously, but why would he tell blabby Genin brats? The Hokage only found out through the ANBU network and allowed their entry into the Chuunin exams to figure out what Orochimaru is after. At least, that's my take on it.
> 
> Also gonna try get a chapter over here every couple of days so there may be editing mistakes I've missed, feel free to point them out.


	10. Chapter 9: Interrogation

"You absolute moron, Naruto!" Shikamaru growled, hand clenching into a fist. Sakura grabbed Naruto, half throttling him in the process.

"He-he's a massive idiot, just ignore him everyone," she said meekly, though it seemed to have no effect on the crowd. A crowd that was becoming distinctly restless.

"Quieten down you worthless bastards!" roared a deep voice, a cloud of smoke appearing at the front of the room. "And please, Sound Ninja-san, put your kunai away." The smoke gave way to a group of adult ninja all dressed in the same style of clothes, pants and a long shirt with large breast pockets, though while most wore it in grey, three donned a navy version and the man who had spoken accompanied the look with a black trench coat.

"They're Intelligence Division," Ino informed softly, her eyes wide. "And the ones in the darker uniforms are higher ups like my dad."

Shikamaru looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "Do you know who they are?"

Ino barely shook her head. "Nuh-uh."

"Thanks for waiting, I'm Morino Ibiki, the examiner for the Chuunin selection exam's first test," the one in the trench coat introduced. Upon closer inspection, Shikamaru could see Ibiki had two long scars across his face and another running down the length of it worryingly close to his left eye.

Ibiki jabbed a finger to a crowded part of the room, "I'm not going to ask again, Sound Ninja. You with the bandages, lower your sleeve and the other. Kunai. Away."

Eyes turned to look but Shikamaru couldn't pick out the guys he was talking to. How the hell was Ibiki able to see what was going on with so many people in the room?

"Sorry, we've been waiting a while and are just very eager to get going," a voice came through the crowd.

"Hey, I told you to be here for four. Not my fault if you're early," Ibiki said dismissively. "Still, this is as good a time as any to explain," he added his tone hardening, "There will be no fighting without permission of the examiners. Even if we do grant permission, killing your opponent is explicitly forbidden. The vermin that disobey will be failed immediately, do I make myself clear?"

The look in his eyes was accompanied by a burst of killing intent meant to cow the weaker willed among them and warn the stronger not to cross the examiners. Considering the worried faces around the room, Shikamaru figured it worked rather well.

Ibiki raised his voice, even though the room was silent. "We will now start the Chunnin Exams. Everyone get up, we have an arranged seating plan to split up your teams. Once you're all sat in your proper places we'll hand out the exam paper."

People moved to obey, rising out of their chairs. Over the sounds of chair legs, Naruto's voice rang out again. "W-what?! A written test?!"

"You need a brain to be Chuunin, dumbass," Sasuke scolded.

Beside Ino, Sakura sighed. "Oh we're so screwed. Naruto's terrible at written tests…"

A few minutes later everyone finally had a chair and an exam paper. Shikamaru had to turn to see Ino, but Choji was only a few rows in front.

"Do not turn over your tests," Ibiki said picking up a piece of chalk. "Listen closely, there are many rules to this test. I'll write on the board while I explain, so don't bother me with questions. Ninja do not question the orders of their superiors."

"The first rule. Everyone starts with ten points. The test contains ten questions worth one point each, however, we'll be subtracting from your score for every wrong answer. Let's say you get seven correct and three wrong, you lose three points and will score seven."

Shikamaru groaned inwardly. If this test got too complicated before they even started, people like Naruto and Choji might overload.

"The second rule," Ibiki continued, "Is that this is a team test, meaning your scores are linked. That puts the actual total number of points up to thirty."

"What? The points make no sense, and why is this a team test?" barked Sakura, raising her hand. Not that Ibiki even turned to look at her. Probably worried Naruto might cause her and Sasuke to fail, Shikamaru noted.

"Silence, I didn't give you permission to question," growled Ibiki. "You cannot enter the exam without a team, therefore your scores are team scores. Now, on to the most important rule. The third rule is that anyone caught cheating will have two points subtracted for every offence. Anyone who loses all their points will be asked to leave."

"We'll be watching you," said one of the invigilators, leering at a particularly frazzled bunch of ninja near him. Looking over, Shikamaru was surprised to note it was Kotetsu from the village gate. Izumo sat on the other side of the room a row behind Shikamaru, the change in outfit probably being what caused Shikamaru not to recognise them immediately.

"As shinobi trying to prove your worth and reach the next level, I hope you all act with pride," Ibiki finished, smiling as he turned to the room of Genin. "And finally, the last rule. Anyone that loses all of their initial points, that is, anyone who scores a zero, either by cheating penalties or incorrect answers will be failed along with their two teammates."

Shikamaru frowned and cast Naruto a sympathetic look. Sasuke and Sakura were probably going insane in their seats. In front of him, Choji shifted awkwardly, but Shikamaru was confident the guy would get at least one right.

"You have one hour. Begin!"

There was a loud rustle as everyone turned their paper over.

The first question was a cryptogram. Shikamaru hummed curiously, not having known what to expect. Shifting his pencil over the characters in the coded message as he worked out a pattern within it, he got the answer easily enough. Looking at the next one, a rather annoying maths question that doubled as a tactical analysis, Shikamaru sighed. Forget Choji, even Ino was going to struggle with these. And the final question wasn't even a question.

_Question 10: This question will be revealed 45 minutes after the test has begun. Listen closely to the examiner before answering._

Kay… Guess that one was out. Which meant Shikamaru had forty-five minutes to finish his test and figure out how to get both his teammates at least one right answer.

Ignoring the scratches of pencils and the idiot on the other side of the room talking and nearly being disqualified, Shikamaru turned his attention to the next question, writing his answer after a moment. These questions were impossible for most people surely? It couldn't just be that as rookies they weren't experienced enough. No way the entire room knew the answers.

He gave an inconspicuous look to the ninja next to him, who was sweating and still stuck on the first question. If the general intelligence of the room was too low to answer these questions, and the invigilators were watching like hawks for cheaters, very few people would go on to pass. But not every ninja was book smart, so there had to be a way, he thought, eyes drifting back to the rules written on the board.

Shikamaru startled, staring at the wording of rule three, Itachi-sensei's words ringing in his ears. "You can skip training so long as you don't get caught doing it." The test didn't disallow cheating, just getting caught cheating. The slight but notable change in the wording gave the rule new meaning, especially in the context of such a hard test. Cheat. We'll be watching, so don't get caught.

Gathering and passing on information was usually Ino's forte, so provided she worked out the hiccup in the rule too, Shikamaru didn't have to worry about her. Choji though… nothing in his jutsu repertoire was built for subtle intel gathering. Luckily he was in front of Shikamaru, not behind, or helping him would get complicated.

The air was filled with the gentle thrum of chakra from numerous people acting and trying not to get caught. Joining in, aware the Chuunin couldn't possibly tell who was doing jutsu and who wasn't without catching the hand signs, Shikamaru activated his Shadow Possession, slowly working his shadow down to Choji. They only needed one right answer so once Choji was caught, Shikamaru quickly filled in question one and wrote in box two: _Don't worry about the rest, #1 is right, S._

Releasing the justu, Shikamaru watched with a smile as Choji sagged in relief, then had the smarts to rub out Shikamaru's message in case any invigilators saw.

Risking a glance at Ino in an elaborate stretch, Shikamaru was glad to see her writing. Good, they were all safe-

A kunai thudded into the desk of a ninja not far from Shikamaru. Instantly the kid was on his feet. "What the hell?"

Kotesu, the thrower of the kunai rose too. "I caught you five times, you fail."

"N-no way…"

"The two on his team get out of here as well," Kotetsu ordered harshly. "Right now, get up!"

As they were escorted out, Shikamaru noticed a blonde not far away pulling his hair in desperation. Even without the orange jumpsuit, Shikamaru recognised it as Naruto. He frowned and went back to his test, filling in another two answers while he debated with himself.

Could Sasuke or Sakura get an answer to him? Could Naruto get one himself? Probably not seeing how lost he looked. Should Shikamaru help him? If he did, then he'd be helping out the competition. But… Naruto was his friend. And having at least one question right would probably make Naruto look good to his teammates.

He was talking himself into it, hands slipping into the signs once more. Even if he got caught, he had cheating points left and a paper of correct answers, fuck the moderators.

He saw Naruto stiffen as their shadows connected and try to shift. _Stop, Idiot, I'm helping!_ He wrote, not caring where Naruto's hand was. _Put your hand at the start of answer box one._

Giving Naruto control back while their shadows were connected was a strain on his chakra and more complicated than just trying to force his own will, but he could do it. Just not for long. It felt like an eon before Naruto finally moved and Shikamaru wondered if the idiot really was brain-dead or something before taking control and answering the question. He then moved on to answer the next four questions for Naruto to cover the idiot in case he'd been caught looking around during the last half hour. Not that the dumbass seemed any calmer once Shikamaru was done. Weirdo.

Relaxing the jutsu, Shikamaru slumped in his seat a little and tried to catch his breath surreptitiously. Around him, the actions of other ninja caught up to them.

"Hundred and two, fail."

"Number twenty-three. Fail."

"Forty-three, twenty-seven, you're out."

"I didn't cheat! You got proof?!" As the hall thinned it was getting easier to spot the cheating even from his seat, Shikamaru thought as he saw a boy get up and begin to argue with the invigilator.

Quick as a flash the two went from standing on one side of the room to the invigilator holding the examinee up against the wall on the other side. "Listen, punk. We are elite Chuunin hand-picked to watch over this exam. We haven't missed anything you've done. Proof enough? Now get out."

Three more Genin left the room before Ibiki brought attention back to the front. Finally, forty-five minutes of the exam had passed.

"We will now begin the tenth question!"

Examinees raised their heads, many having a small look around and seeing just how many ninja had been asked to leave. Before the hall had been packed, now, you could see each remaining participant easily. Shikamaru caught the sure gaze of Ino and in front of him, Choji looked relaxed. Someone who didn't though, was Naruto. He was trembling in his chair, looking directly at Ibiki. Maybe he needs the bathroom? Shikamaru thought, But then, that Kankuro guy went a little while ago… though he isn't back yet.

Hopefully the idiot was just struggling with being silent for a whole hour and wasn't about to have a horrendous, embarrassing bowl movement in front a good eighty or so ninja.

"Before we get to the question, however, I'm adding one final rule."

Shikamaru startled. He couldn't be serious? More weird ass rules? What else could Ibiki restrict?

At the back of the room the door opened. "Ah, looks like you're just in time," Ibiki greeted Kankuro. "Any later and you'd have been disqualified and all that playing with dolls would have been a waste."

Playing with dolls? What did that mean? Shikamaru looked over at Kankuro as he walked past. The other boy seemed to have understood and looked perturbed by the information. He also might have passed something to Temari, but it was hard to tell.

"Now," Ibiki said once Kankuro was seated once more. "Let me be clear. This rule is absolute."

* * *

_Earlier_

After greeting their teams, Jonin were asked to meet in the Staff tower, a circular building on three levels, one of which was a rooftop observation area. The lower area had tables and a small kitchenette where the Sensei would make themselves drinks or lunch and the middle floor was more of a relaxation area with a large selection of plants in the centre and two rings of benches, one surrounding the plants in a small circle facing outward and the other spanning the circumference of the room with three small grated stands for smokers spread around and a flat shelf above the bench that worked as both shelving for a few potted plants and window seats for any ninja who didn't fancy the benches.

When he reached the tower, Itachi found that the Jonin that were already there were grouping themselves by village, Rain ninja talking exclusively to Rain ninja, Grass talking with Grass, a creepily pale Sound ninja on his lonesome looking out at the academy grounds.

While there were other Leaf ninja, Itachi ignored them and found a quiet part of the centre floor, taking a seat on the window ledge. He was the only one up there for some time before the sound of feet tapping on the stairs reached Itachi's ears. Expecting it to be someone planning on going to the roof, Itachi didn't turn his head from the window to observe them.

"It's getting quite crowded down there," the newcomer said, walking towards Itachi. Inwardly groaning, Itachi wondered if he could just ignore the other ninja. No luck as the man now stood beside Itachi and from his vantage point, Itachi could see they were from Oto. The lone Sound Sensei from the village tied to Orochimaru.

"I suppose it would be, the exam starts in an hour," Itachi relented, looking back out the window.

"I'm Yashagorou, the Sensei from Sound," the man introduced, offering a hand.

"Itachi," he replied, eyeing the hand warily. "How are you liking Konoha?" he asked instead.

The ninja dropped its hand. "It seems quite modern. Oto doesn't have many buildings and our paths are natural forest floor, though we do have houses and buildings built into the trees."

"Some of our older buildings are built into the mountain," Itachi disclosed. They were generally disused or emergency safe houses and not entirely hidden to outsiders.

"Oh? Like that big area with the faces?"

"Not that I'm aware of," Itachi lied, "But there are some paths integrated to allow civilians to get up to the top of the stone faces. They're of our past and current Hokage."

"Ah. But the older gentleman who greeted us introduced himself as the Third Hokage. And there are four heads on the mountain."

"The Fourth Hokage died young, luckily his predecessor did not, so the Third Hokage retook his position."

"Aren't you worried about such an old man leading your village?" Yashagorou pressed, cocking his head to one side, his dark ponytail falling over his shoulder.

"Not at all. The elders are wise."

Maybe the other ninja caught a hollow note in Itachi's voice, because he soon smiled. "I find them quite conceited myself."

Itachi quirked an eyebrow, turning his head to look at the Sound ninja, "Is the leader of Sound young then?"

"I'm not sure, their appearance changes a lot, so no-one's really sure."

"But you trust them?"

"Mhmm," Yashagorou hummed raising his hands in a shrug, "They've made good decisions and created a nation able to thrive enough to be recognised on a stage like this. I'd call that trustworthy, wouldn't you?"

"I suppose."

Yashagorou frowned, "You don't sound convinced, Itachi-sensei."

"Ah, sorry, Yashogorou-Sensei, I'm just projecting," Itachi covered with a smile.

"Oh?"

"My team are rookies, and I was thinking about what you said. They'd made good decisions and hope to be recognised as Chuunin level ninja, but I find myself worrying about their abilities."

Yashagorou blinked, his yellow, almost snake like eyes sharp. "Ah, so it's your team you don't trust? Are you new to being a Sensei as well?" he guessed, "Maybe the combined freshness made you all eager to prove yourselves – they ninja ready for the next phase and you a competent Sensei who can teach and lead?"

"Something like that. Mostly I'd forgotten there was a written test and one of my team is more of a practical soul," Itachi said, forcing a light chuckle. "He has good reasoning, but still, I worry."

Yashagorou smiled. "Well if not, there's always trying again in six months." Silence hung for a moment before the man spoke again. "How come you ignored the other Leaf ninja and came up here alone?"

"Oh, I was waiting for my comrades," Itachi lied, feeling a familiar chakra heading up the stairs. He would have preferred to wait on his own and ignore the other Jonin, but he would take Leaf prying over a foreign ninja. Pointing to get Yashagorou to switch his attention to the staircase, Itachi's other hand formed the ANBU signs for 'approach' and prayed Kakashi would take pity on him as he and Kurenai came onto the middle level, the former holding a steaming cup of coffee.

"Ah, Itachi-sensei, there you are," Kakashi greeted. "We looked for you downstairs."

"Too crowded, I thought our meeting might be a little more private up here," he responded. "Yashagorou-sensei, please, excuse us."

Blessedly, the man took the hint. "Ah, yes, of course. I'll take my leave then. Goodbye, Itachi-sensei, Leaf-sensei," he added to Kurenai and Kakashi, bowing to them all before heading down to the kitchen area.

"Not like you to initiate conversation with us," Kakashi noted, a teasing edge to his tone once Yashagorou's footsteps could no longer be heard.

"He was prying about Konoha's leadership. Even I can only create so many segues," Itachi explained as Kurenai settled on the bench below Itachi and Kakashi sat opposite her, putting his drink on the seat beside him.

"Lucky we came along then," Kurenai said. "Did you get any information on Oto?"

"If we believe Yashagorou, the leader changes their form regularly," Itachi said, "He claims to have not met the person."

"So we don't even know the gender?"

Kakashi groaned, "Well that's completely useless then."

"I don't see why you're complaining, we can't go on solo missions during the exams," Itachi challenged. "The most we can do is train when our teams pass their tests. Otherwise we have to gather with the other Sensei like this."

"Oh we'll probably be busy again before long," Kakashi reasoned.

"Huh? Why's that?"

"From what I heard on my way here, the first examiner is Morino Ibiki."

"Urgh," Itachi groaned. "Why'd it have to be him?" Now he was even more concerned about his team.

Kurenai frowned. "What's wrong with Ibiki?"

"Ah, of course, you probably haven't come across him, Kurenai," Kakashi said. "He's a sadist, and a pro at his job."

"What's his job?"

"Torture and Interrogation," Itachi answered.

"Huh?" Kurenai balked, "Why pick him to lead the exam?"

"Probably because intelligence gathering is a hugely important skill for ninja," Itachi guessed. "Or else maybe it's because he'd be the best candidate to test our teams' mental fortitude?"

"Whatever the reason," Kakashi cut in, "all we can do is put our faith in our students."

Silence fell on the three for a moment broken by Kakashi as he reached for his coffee. "So, have you started that book I gave you, Itachi-Sensei? The exam's an hour long, plenty of time to get started."

Itachi felt a vein in his temple throb. "If you'd so kindly remove your mask, Kakashi-sensei," he said through gritted teeth, "I'll gladly shove that waste of paper and ink down your throat over the course of the next hour instead."

Kakashi didn't look the least bit phased. "Maa, Itachi-Sensei, that isn't very kind. And after all the effort I went through to find my spare copy."

Kurenai gave Itachi a look out of the corner of her eye and shifted away from him slightly. Itachi was just glad she didn't ask which book he'd been loaned.

* * *

Back in the exam hall, the remaining Genin waited for Ibiki to explain his new rule.

"First though you must choose whether or not to accept the exam's tenth question."

A murmur of confusion followed that statement.

"Huh? Choose? What happens if we refuse the question?" demanded Temari, sparking a few other participants to shout out as well.

"If you choose to reject the question, you'll lose all your points immediately and fail the exam. Both of your teammates will also fail as a result."

"What?" Ino gawked, "Then why would anyone refuse?"

"Because of the final rule," Ibiki answered calmly. Shikamaru groaned, so the choosing to accept the question wasn't the new rule? "If you answer the tenth question incorrectly, you'll be barred from ever taking the Chuunin exam again in any nation."

"What? You've gotta be bluffing!" Kiba challenged, "There are people who've taken this exam multiple times before! We know there are." Indeed, Kabuto had been placed on the row behind Kiba. However, Kiba's point only made Ibiki chuckle, which was an awful, dark sound that sent a chill down Shikamaru's spine.

"Just your rotten luck. I didn't set the exams in previous years. But I am this time and my word is final. If I say you're unfit to ever be a Chuunin, then that's exactly the status you'll have." The look in his eyes was one of absolute seriousness, and Shikamaru found himself believing Ibiki had the authority to do just that.

"I've been up front about the consequences. Fail now and try again later, or proceed and risk permanent damnation. The choice is yours. Anyone who doubts their ability would be smart to bow out here," he added, his eyes flashing in a manner that said he enjoyed watching them squirm. "Come back next year and reapply. Maybe I won't be the proctor."

So, if one of them got cold feet and dropped out, all of them would. Shikamaru frowned. If the question was like the others, statistically, out of the three of them, Shikamaru was the only one who might be able to answer correctly, but even then, it was also possible that because he helped Naruto earlier, that Shikamaru was out of chances to cheat the answer to Choji. And he would _definitely_ get caught giving the answer to Ino. If she couldn't get the correct answer off of anyone else, she'd be banned from ever becoming Chuunin. Even if Shikamaru didn't really care either way about rank, he knew Ino did, and Choji wanted to take the exams to make his dad proud. Being permanently Genin would be a complete embarrassment to their families.

"Are you ready?" Ibiki asked, "Then let's begin. Those who wish to resign from the exams at this point should raise their hands. Once their number has been confirmed, they and their teammates should leave the room."

Shikamaru could feel a knot in his stomach tighten as Ibiki revelled in their obvious discomfort. Letting them think this over was a false kindness. The longer they stewed on their decision, the more doubt would creep in, and the more likely a greater number of people would chose to quit. It didn't matter if Shikamaru knew that was probably Ibiki's game, because either way, the only people losing here were the Genin hopefuls taking the exam. Ibiki won if they quit now, if they answered the question wrong and even if they got it right, because Ibiki obviously got his kicks out of the self-created torment each ninja was feeling from his words.

He took the lead in missions, which might mean Ino and Choji were expecting Shikamaru to take the lead here too. But then if he risked it and they got the answer wrong, he damned them to a life where they would be unable to ever be ninja of high and respectful rank. They were the only children of their parents, who were the Heads of Clan. If the heirs couldn't become high ranking ninja, it would apply strain to their standings in the Clan and possibly lead to in-fighting, which could affect the entire village. On the other side, if he chose for them and they failed now, it could cause the team to fall apart. If Ino and Choji couldn't trust him, Itachi-sensei wouldn't let them out of the village on missions, and they'd be stuck doing D-Ranks forever.

It was an impossible choice for Shikamaru, and he hoped Ino and Choji could see that.

The silence drew on for seconds that felt like hours as everyone had similar thoughts to Shikamaru. Finally, someone cracked.

"I-I'm rejecting the question!" an older Leaf ninja said, raising his hand and standing.

Without missing a beat, the invigilator beside that row called out, "Number fifty, fail. Number one hundred and thirty, one hundred and eleven, you also fail."

The two named stood up as well without comment while the first ninja cried, "I'm sorry guys!"

That seemed to open the floodgates as hands flew up around the room. "I quit! Me too! I resign as well!" Numbers were called out as teams failed, but Ino and Choji didn't raise their hands. They hadn't failed yet, and Shikamaru was torn.

He believed in his teammates, he really did, but the safe answer was to quit and go again next time when Ibiki wasn't dangling their future in front of them. This kind of decision was one they hadn't prepared for and without the ability to confer the decision was one of the utmost trust. Which meant it was completely sensible to raise his hand and stop this madness.

That's what Shikamaru kept telling himself when his breath came in short and shaky as he started to raise his hand, only to pause as someone he never expected shoved his hand in the air, his whole body trembling.

"Naruto?" Shikamaru muttered, staring and wondering if the idiot was finally going to ask to go to the bathroom.

"I… Don't you dare underestimate me!" the blonde roared. "I don't quit and I won't run from a hard decision! I accept your question!"

Was he… risking his dream of being Hokage, just so Sasuke and Sakura could become Chuunin?

"I'm not afraid of you!" Naruto continued, "Even if I end up being a Genin for the rest of my life, I'll definitely become Hokage. There's nothing in the selection process that says I have to be a certain rank beforehand!"

Shikamaru was actually surprised Naruto knew anything about the selection process, but then, there was every chance Naruto had been hoping to bypass the rank system entirely and go from Academy Student to Hokage.

"Crazy dumbass," Shikamaru said to himself, starting to raise his hand once more.

"I'll accept too!"

Shikamaru had never whipped his head around so fast in his life. He stared at Ino, eyes wide as saucers. She stood, one hand on the desk the other in the air, confident smile so forced Shikamaru wouldn't be surprised if her jaw locked. She turned her head to him and inclined it the barest amount. Her decision was made.

No… no Ino. What if you fail?

Shikamaru felt tears prick at the corner of his eyes as a chair scraped from one the rows in front. He didn't even have to look to know it was Choji's.

"Count me in too. No way Naruto's passing and I'm not."

"Are you all sure? This will be the last time I ask," Ibiki said, his tone filled with danger. "And what about you, eighty-three, I've seen your hand dally in the air twice."

Shikamaru swallowed around a lump in his throat. He turned back towards Ibiki, catching the haunted gaze of Naruto. The kid looked outright dangerous in this moment, like a coiled spring ready to demolish the room if it turned out he'd picked wrong. A pencil clattered to the floor, drawing Shikamaru's eyes to Choji, who smiled in the calm manner he always did.

"I…" Shikamaru blinked furiously as tears blurred his vision. He knew he should drop, that would be sensible, but Choji and Ino wanted to go on. He couldn't tear that away from them, even if things turned out terrible. "I… I'll do it," he cried.

"Are you sure? You don't look it," Ibiki pressed.

Shikamaru swallowed and wiped his eyes on his arm. "Yes," he said, determination finally creeping into his voice. "Give me the question!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone wondering, Yashogorou was the name of one of Jiraya's students in his Jiraya the Gallant. That character changes his name to Orochimaru later on, so I thought that would work for the Sound Sensei he hides as.


	11. Chapter 10: Transition

There were eighty-one people left, and when before they had all been despairing, they were now slowly gaining confidence. Ibiki waited another minute more during which others rose to call out their will to continue.

"All right, settle down. Everyone who's still here," Ibiki said, letting the words hang for a moment. One last time for the panic and anticipation to get to the Genin. "You pass the exam!"

"EH?!" The room was in utter disbelief, but that didn't seem to deter Ibiki.

"What do you mean we pass?" asked Sakura, "What about the tenth question?"

"Oh, I didn't write one," Ibiki smiled his demeanour one of actual joy now, not sadistic amusement. "I figured the accept or reject thing was enough if I bigged it up and made a show."

"Then why did we have to suffer through the other nine if this is the only one that mattered?" Temari demanded. "That was all lead-up to the tenth? Seriously? What a waste of an hour."

"It wasn't a waste," argued Ibiki. "Those questions served a different purpose, to test your skills at spying."

"Our skills at spying?" Naruto questioned looking utterly lost, either because he didn't understand or because Ibiki was now grinning like a child in a sweet shop.

"Yup! Remember the rules at the start? You pass or fail as a three-man cell, and all that pressure I added with the fear of you failing would bring your teammates down too. In the real ninja world, you'll experience that kind of pressure a lot and one of you performing poorly could indeed spell disaster for the whole team," Ibiki explained. "And I purposely made the questions harder than ninja of your level could be expected to solve. That left you with one choice; cheat. I also added in two teams of my own, so you would have amble people to collect answers from." Here three ninja waved their hands, the whole room looking around to see them.

"Where's the other team?" asked Ino. Behind her the exam hall door opened

"Here." The first team to retire from the exam's tenth question stood in the doorway, grinning.

"They hammed it up a bit, but I had them in specifically to quit at that point," Ibiki said, shrugging a shoulder. "I knew that if you saw one team break, the weaker willed among you would fly out the door."

"And as well," Ibiki said, reaching for his headband that doubled as a bandana over his head. "I think now is a good time to show you the consequences of failure. Sloppy cheating gets you thrown out of my exam, because sloppy spying… has severe consequences."

In the deadly silence that followed Ibiki's bandana removal, the man continued, "Not every failure in espionage will cost you your life. You can be valuable to the enemy alive. Have things taken from you little by little, time and again while the lives of you and your comrades have to be weighed up against the lives of the village you love."

He was referring to torture undoubtedly, and had clearly been subjected to it himself, which gave Shikamaru context for Ibiki's facial scars as he and the other participants stared at Ibiki's head. The scars on his face were now accompanied by more scars on his head, carving up the skin there along with burns that changed the shape of Ibiki's crown, too severe to heal. Shikamaru looked over to Choji, whose hand was on his own arm, burns hidden under a thick layer of bandages. The skin was healing but it was entirely possible the discolouration would be permanent like Ibiki's, whose tanned skin was at complete opposites with the angry pink mess the top of his head was. And that was discounting the weird spiral craters that looked to be the work of a drill. How did someone even survive that?

"The information you have is useless if the enemy know you're there. You can't trust it unless you are completely hidden," Ibiki went on, hiding his wounds once more, wanting their full attention on his words. "Listen closely and remember this; if you bring back information from a suspect source or a compromised operation you are doing the enemies' work for them, putting the next team that works based on that information in danger."

Shikamaru paled. He turned to catch Ino's gaze and saw her tense in concern, likely thinking the same as him. They'd failed a mission, was there a team sent out in response? Were they in danger because of that? Itachi-sensei hadn't seemed too worried, but then, his focus had been on getting the three of them back to Konoha safely.

"Alright, but that still doesn't explain what that tenth question was all about," Kankuro frowned.

Ibiki grinned, "Well, the tenth question was the first real question on the exam." While many Genin looked on in confusion, Ibiki turned to look at Shikamaru. "And I think I'm right in believing you understand the full scope of what the point of it was, don't you?"

"I… I had to accept," Shikamaru said quietly. "If my teammates knew the risks, what being stuck a Genin for life meant… I couldn't take that away. If they were willing to put their futures on the line," he said, his voice gaining strength, "Then I would do everything in my power to make sure they got the right answer."

"Ah, that is all very true," acknowledged Ibiki, "But you're thinking too small. It isn't just about you or your teammates, it's about the village. The choice was deliberately dangerous and difficult to reflect those you'll be receiving from now on. What kind of ninja can go about in life only accepting the easy and safe missions? Not a very good one."

"Let's assume for a moment you all go on successfully to become Chuunin," Ibiki postulated, "You are assigned to steal a vital enemy document, knowing nothing about the skills, deployment, or military preparedness of your foe. You may have to cross land that has been heavily mined and set with traps. Now, do you accept your mission?" he challenged, "Or do you reject it – rather than place your own life, or the lives of your companions – in jeopardy? Could any Chuunin get away with only taking on the safe jobs? Absolutely not!" Ibiki raised his voice, swept his hand out to the side. " _This_ is the talent we most value in commander of a Chuunin cell! I want ninja brave enough to risk their lives, not cowards who just want to live another day. In my opinion," he continued with gusto, "those kinds of people, only able to make weak and easy decisions don't deserve to be Chuunin at all!"

"By choosing accept, you answered the almost insolvable tenth question correctly," he smiled, "You agreed to become the kind of ninja I would trust with my life, and I'll pray that that strength endures through the next tests. But for now, part one of the Chuunin exams is concluded-," Ibiki looked about to say more, but cut himself off, head snapping to the window.

Shikamaru looked over just in time to see a whirling black mass smash through the window, two kunai shooting out. Shikamaru flapped for a kunai to defend himself. Only, no attack was incoming.

The kunai the black thing had thrown turned out to be attached to fabric, and were now lodged into the ceiling behind a purple haired woman, who looked very pleased with herself, while Ibiki didn't look threated so much as irritated. Risking a look around, everyone seemed just as confused as Shikamaru, and Ino didn't look like she recognised the new woman. So probably not Interrogation Division.

"None of you are in a position to celebrate!" the woman roared, drawing attention back to her and the sign behind her back.

"Newly arrived second chief… examiner officer…Mitarashi Anko?" Shikamaru read slowly, moving his head around to see the message.

"For an examiner, you'd think she'd put on some clothes," Choji commented, staring at Anko, who, bar a long pale trench coat and tan skirt, was dressed in ninja mesh undershirt and shorts.

"Maybe she gets in fights a lot?" suggested Shikamaru, noting the leg armour.

"She reminds me of Naruto," Sakura muttered, her voice carrying in the near silent room.

"Time's a wasting people! Let's go!"

Naruto's eye twitched as he blinked at Anko in dismay. "I am not that weird," he grumbled, "Right Hinata?"

"She… really killed the mood," Hinata said softly. Which Shikamaru guessed counted as support.

"Give me a break," Ibiki mumbled. "Your timing is the absolute worst!"

"What are you talking about!" Anko cried, flushing in presumed embarrassment at Ibiki, "You passed twenty-six teams, that's seventy-eight people. It's not my fault you're going soft!"

Ibiki raised his chin, "This year we have exceptional candidates. I think some of them actually get what it means to be a Chuunin."

"Yeah right, I'll do your job properly and cut these guys down by half. There's no way that many are ready for the jump in responsibility," Anko grinned and turned back to the Genin. "I'm giddy at just the thought of pulling the rug out from under you guys. Come on, get up, I'll explain the next part of the exam on location! No dilly-dallying!"

Groaning, Shikamaru put his kunai in his pouch and went to follow the other ninja as they followed Anko out of the broken window. "This place has doors you know," he grumbled.

"Hey, Shikamaru?"

"Huh? Oh, Naruto. What's up?" Shikamaru asked, turning to look at the blonde.

"Why'd you help me in the exam? I'm not on your team," he said frowning. "Were you trying to sabotage me?"

"What? Why would I do that?" Shikamaru asked, his eyebrows knitting together in confusion. "You're my friend Naruto and I didn't think Sasuke or Sakura had a way of getting information to you. They were too far away. And even if Hinata let you copy off of her or something, you're not exactly subtle about anything, so I figured I could help. And I knew all of the answers, so it wasn't like I was worried about losing you points."

"Huh?! You knew all that?" Naruto screeched. "I couldn't figure out a single answer."

"Yeah I figured. Wait. Was that what had you moving all weird? You thought I was trying to knock your team out of the exam?" Shikamaru was torn between hurt and offense at the thought.

"A little bit. Sasuke was saying we shouldn't go easy on you guys," Naruto explained as they followed the group. "That Itachi-sensei had probably told you to destroy us."

"Des…troy you?" Shikamaru blinked. "No, he hasn't mentioned you guys at all actually. I mean except you."

"Huh? The hell is he talking about me for?!"

"Well you do live in the same apartment block. You used to hang out together right?"

Naruto hummed in thought. "Well. I mean not like every day, but yeah. He'd buy me ramen sometimes when Iruka-sensei was busy with other stuff and he's got my spare key 'cause I've been locked out of my place more than once."

"And he knows you snore like a bear."

"Do _not_!"

"Have you heard yourself snore?"

"Well… no…"

"You sound like something large and dying," Shikamaru told him. "Bear is a complement compared to some animals I can think of."

Naruto pouted, but a smile soon worked its way onto his face. "I'm glad I can count on you, Shikamaru. I got all worried about nothing huh?"

"Heh, yeah. You better return the favour though," Shikamaru smiled. "If my hide needs saving, I hope you've got my back."

Naruto grinned wider and shot Shikamaru a thumbs up. "Believe it!" Turning his attention back to the group of ninja in front of them, Naruto's eyes widened. "Woah. Look at that!"

They landed one side of wire fencing several metres tall, behind which lay a huge, dark, imposing forest. Trees were as wide as buildings and even the smaller roots and vines were thickier than Shikamaru's whole body.

"This is the location of the next exam?" Shikamaru wondered, looking at the signs on the wire fence that clearly read 'danger' and 'keep out'. "Are we even allowed in this area?"

"Welcome to the stage for the second test. This is Practice Arena 44. Also known as the Forest Of Death," Anko introduced, stressing the death part more than was probably necessary. "And soon, you'll find out just why it's called the Forest of Death."

Gravitating back to his team, Shikamaru could hear Choji mumble, "This place looks creepy."

Naruto frowned, hands on his hips and shoved his ass out, saying in a mocking tone, "Soon you'll find out why it's called the Forest of Death." He jabbed a finger at Anko. "You think that scares me! There's nothing I'm afraid of!"

"Yeah, except written tests," Ino muttered.

"Oho~. A spirited one." Anko smiled ominously and Shikamaru paled. Not good.

"Naruto!" he yelled in warning, a kunai already flying from Anko's hand. Then she was gone faster than Shikamaru could track, reappearing behind Naruto.

"S-so fast…" Ino remarked, her eyes wide as saucers.

"Kids like you are killed quickly," Anko chuckled, her tongue coming out to lap at the blood dripping from a cut on Naruto's cheek. "Spraying that red blood I love so~."

Anko tensed, then swung around like a coiled spring, another kunai in hand meeting the tongue of a Grass ninja, but not cutting them.

"Here's your kunai," the ninja said, his voice giving Shikamaru chills.

"Why thank you," Anko smiled, her finger slipping into the loop at the kunai hilt. Naruto's face was still in her hand and the poor blonde looked about to have a heart attack. "But you know," she added harshly, "You shouldn't sneak up behind me. Unless you want to die?"

"No," replied the ninja, "I just get excited when I see blood. Plus, you cut my hair when you threw that kunai. That wasn't very nice."

Choji frowned, "Are all the examiners crazy?"

"Forget the examiners, what's up with that creepy grass ninja?" Shikamaru replied.

"And the killing intent," Ino added softly. Both boys turned to her with eyebrows raised. "You can't feel it?" They shook their heads. "She flashed some when she threw the kunai at Naruto. Then when the grass ninja appeared. We should definitely keep away from his team," she added, barely above a whisper, "I can feel something dark washing off of that guy."

"Ah, sorry about that," Anko apologised, appearing not to have heard Ino. The grass ninja also seemed oblivious as he went back to his team. "It looks like there's a lot of blood thirsty people this year. That should make this fun. Everyone! Before we start the test, I need you to sign these!" Anko called out loudly, going to the stall beside the wire fence where Shikamaru could see three ninja sat at a desk, one of whom passed Anko a stack of forms.

"I need you all to sign these wavers," she explained, holding the documents high so everyone could see.

"Eh? Why?" asked Naruto, holding his hands out for one anyway.

"Well, you see. People are probably going to die in this test, so if you guys don't sign these forms saying you understand the risks and are okay with possibly dying…" Anko started in a happy tone that didn't at all befit the subject matter, "That means I'm responsible for your deaths. I'll explain the test, but you can't begin until you've signed these and handed them into the booth behind me."

"I don't like the sound of this one," Shikamaru mumbled, eyeing Anko warily as she went about handing the forms.

"Yeah, can't believe I'm saying this, but I think we should read the fine print before getting ourselves into something crazy," Choji said squinting at his form.

Once everyone had a waver, Anko raised her voice to gather everyone's attention once more. "Alright, now I'll explain what you guys have to do here. In layman's terms, this is a survival exercise."

Choji groaned. Ino quickly elbowed him in the side. "Shhh!"

"This area, Practice Arena 44 is so numbered because it has forty-four locked gates, one of which you can see here behind me," Anko explained, pulling out a scroll with a map of the arena on it. "A tower lies in the centre and a river flows through the middle. All other land is forest. The distance from the gates to the tower is about ten kilometres."

"So looking at that, we can either travel in a straight line or follow the river," Ino noted.

"Assuming the tower is the goal," Shikamaru agreed.

"During the test, you will have to complete a single task," Anko said, rolling the map away and pulling out two more scrolls, sealed with bands. "Using any method available to you, you will compete in a no rules scroll battle." She shifted her hands so the characters on the scrolls could be seen. A white scroll bearing the character for heaven, and a black scroll bearing the character for earth. "You will fight over these 'heaven' and 'earth' scrolls. Each team will be given one of the two types of scroll from the booth once you hand your correctly filled in wavers. The other type you will have to take from another team. There are twenty-six teams here, so thirteen will be given a 'Heaven Scroll' and the other thirteen will receive an 'Earth Scroll'. To pass this test, your team must acquire one of each kind of scroll and reach the tower."

Choji raised his eyebrow, "Half?"

"Anko did say she was going to get rid of half of us at the first exam hall," Shino noted from behind them.

Choji jumped, "When the hell did you get there?!"

"I've been here the whole time… Did you not notice me?"

"NO!"

"That plus the bloodthirsty guys Anko mentioned means at best half of us pass," Shikamaru said, trying not to give away that he also hadn't noticed Shino.

"There is also a time limit on this test," Anko called. "This second exam will last one hundred and twenty hours. That's five days exactly."

"F-five days?" Ino balked.

"EH? What about dinner?" Choji demanded.

"You're on your own," Anko shrugged dismissively. "There's food in the forest you can gather, just mind out for poisonous fungai, plants, berries, insects, man-eating beasts…"

"Yeah, forget it, we're quitting," Choji deadpanned.

"And as some of you have noticed, thirteen passing teams is unlikely. As the days go on, you'll have less time to rest between travelling and trying to find teams with a scroll different to your own. The distance you'll have to cover will seem impossible if you leave it too long," Anko told them, "And it isn't just the other ninja you have to worry about, the forest is crawling with all manner of things that will try to kill you too. You probably won't get much sleep. Some might even die from the harsh conditions and inability to gather your own food or treat wounds."

Ino and Shikamaru caught gazes as they looked at Choji's arm. If they went ahead, their usual formations wouldn't be viable. Choji was already vulnerable to infection and there wasn't any certainty they could treat anything to Itachi-sensei's skill level.

"It's five days. Nothing too bad should happen in that time," Shikamaru said, as much to convince himself as to convince his team.

Anko continued, "Now, let's talk about what will disqualify you."

"Eh, more rules?!" Naruto sagged.

"First, those who don't make it to the tower with both scrolls within the time limit," Anko said raising one finger, "Second, those who complete the task without a full team, be they lost in the forest or dead, I need all three of you at the tower or it's a fail. Also as a rule, there will be no quitting once you begin until the five days are over. The final way to be disqualified is if you look inside either scroll before reaching the tower," Anko declared. "I expressly forbid you from looking at the contents of the scrolls before reaching the tower."

"Why?" asked Choji.

"A Chuunin will be asked to handle confidential information. This is a test of trust, if you look at the scrolls, then why should I risk my life for you if we're on a team when I know you can't even be trusted to take a note from A to B without being nosy?" Anko reasoned. "Anyway, that's enough talking. Exchange your three forms for a scroll then you'll be assigned a gate to start from. If possible, try not to die."

"So… what do you want to do?" Ino asked as the Genin around them shuffled away into teams to sit and read their wavers. By the gate, the ninja at desk was pulling a curtain across to hide which scroll each team was given.

"Huh? Why're you asking me?" Shikamaru frowned. He looked to Choji, "Were you serious about quitting there?"

Choji frowned. "I mean, a little. Dying without food would really suck."

Shikamaru sighed. "Well, let's read through these forms, see if there's anything in here that might tell us what we're in for…"

* * *

It occurred to Itachi that his team had been gone longer than an hour, but no one had come to inform he, Kakashi or Kurenai how their team had done. Figuring he could get away with wandering off, Itachi made to go to the bathroom and instead slipped off to room 301.

Sensing only one chakra inside, Itachi let himself in. Ibiki was collecting exam papers, and there were no Genin to be seen.

"Hmm? Oh, it's you," Ibiki huffed, looking up at Itachi. "The second test will be underway soon, the Sensei will also be moved in the next hour, so you should probably head back to the Staff Tower."

"So… my team passed?" Itachi wondered.

"Akimichi Choji, Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino right?" At a nod from Itachi, Ibiki nodded. "They did. That Nara kid is creepy smart like his father, he didn't need to gather the answers, and the only cheating he did was to pass the answers to two boys."

"Two boys?" Itachi blinked in confusion, "So he helped someone else?"

"Yeah, Uzumaki Naruto. A curious kid in himself. He has an ego the size of the village."

"Considering his parents, I'd almost assume it's genetic."

Ibiki raised an eyebrow. "Oh? You knew them?"

"My mother was close to his, and they were pregnant around the same time," Itachi shrugged. "I was too young to be left alone back then and ended up meeting them a few times. His father gave me a kunai."

"Damn, I'd be jealous if he were still around," Ibiki chuckled. "Powerful guy to know. But then, maybe he'd have kicked your butt five years ago."

Itachi gave a hollow laugh. "Oh I'm far more scared of Naruto's mother than his father. She would have beat me half to death and he would have put the pieces in a wheelchair and talked sense into me."

It was Ibiki's turn to laugh, which he did with gusto, leaning on the desk he'd been picking a test paper up from. "Now I don't doubt that," he chuckled, taking a deep breath to calm himself. "She had a temper as fiery as her hair. The next test is the Forest of Death. If you hurry out, you might be able to grab some snacks for the next five days instead of eating ration bars."

Itachi tilted his head to one side. "The sensei aren't allowed to go about their days?"

"You're all basically on mission standby I'm afraid." Itachi groaned. He might never have complained about it in ANBU, but he was older now, had gotten used to _not_ living on ration packs. And he could be a little more expressive since he didn't have any reputation to uphold.

When Itachi got back to the Staff Tower, a small bag of shopping in hand it seemed he was just in time as a small team of fuuinjutsu specialists were waiting for him and the other Sensei of passing teams. "Are you all here now? We have the recorded gate your teams are starting from in the Forest of Death and will be applying seals that teleport you to them should they open the sleeves in the tower as directed. If they open them early invigilators will appear instead and knock them out before removing them from the training area."

"Gate twenty-seven huh?" Itachi remarked.

"Oh? You're able to read the sealing script?" the ninja writing on his forearm asked.

"Not much, only the easier stuff. I wanted to go to Uzushiogakure when I was younger to learn more," Itachi explained.

"It was destroyed during the Third Ninja War, so I'm not sure what there is to be learned from ruins."

"Me neither, so I haven't been. Maybe one day." Itachi mused, shifting to let a ninja from Kiri take his place.

"If you all have your seals, please follow me to the standby area!" the head of the sealing squad called several minutes later. Reluctantly Itachi followed the other Jonin. At worst he'd be stuck with Kakashi and Kurenai for five days. Lips quirking into a small smile, Itachi thought of how confidently his team had walked into the first exam. He figured if those three could keep that energy and walk towards death with a grin, then he could definitely handle five days of prying.


End file.
